A Dangerous Card Game
by fantasygirl1999
Summary: Oz has received a mysterious letter from Ciel Phantomhive, requesting that he come to England to solve a case of mysterious murders done by 'The Queen of Hearts.' It appears that the two nobles have been caught up in an elaborate card game. Can they win? Rated T for violence. No pairings so far, but may be later on.
1. Chapter 1: Vessalius

**Hello, hello, hello! This is my second multi-chaptered fanfiction, so forgive my noobiness! X3**

**I have a few points before we begin-but I'll be as quick as I can.**

**-Firstly, I update around once a month, but it really depends on how much time I get to write.**

**-My chapters are normally around 3,000 words, but can leap to 4,000.**

**-I'm going to be using the anime of Pandora Hearts for this fic, purely because I'm still reading the manga and I'm not going to spoil the manga for anyone else. The Black Buter/Kuroshitsuji part will be around be around the 10th volume of the manga, though that won't really matter. (The only reason I'm not setting it in the anime's first season is that I want to include Snake and Ronald Knox)**

**-As it's set in England (and Pandora Hearts is Victorian Europe), I'm not using the Japanese honorfics commonly found in the manga. I'm going to use their English counterparts as accurately as I can-so bare with me.**

**Okay, that's all from me for now-let's get this show on the road!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, Pandora Hearts or room on my bookshelf.**

Chapter One: Vessalius

Golden sunlight shone down from the clear, blue sky. It was as though the world was enclosed in a sapphire and a torch was being shone through to dazzle those below. The Rainsworth estate truly looked impressive on a day like this.

A slight breeze ruffled the sandy locks of a teenage boy. He was perched on a second floor window sill of the butterscotch coloured, large Rainsworth manor located at the head of a small village. Roofs jutted out like jigsaw pieces between leafy foliage. The boy's legs dangled in midair, skimming the top of one of these trees.

His eyes were closed, his head tilted slightly upwards so that the warmth shone on his face, his chestnut coloured eyelashes reflecting some of the light to give a shiny effect, an act that caused his long, blonde hair to tumble off his forehead.

In his hand he held a large golden pocket watch, from which a nostalgic tune was drifting out, floating along on the wind.

"Oz." a voice from the room behind him said, the boy gave a 'mmmmm...?' sound in return; much too comfortable on his perch to really care.

"The mail's come."

"Doesn't it always, Gil?" Oz's bow-shaped mouth curved upwards into a snickering smile at his own wit. He heard a tired sigh from the person behind him.

"An important letter came through for you."

Finally, the blonde opened his eyes, revealing them to be a vibrant grassy colour that sparkled in the light.

Oz swivelled on the windowsill, placing his feet on a velvet cushioned chair that he had evidently used to climb onto the high window in the first place.

Oz looked at the serious man holding a crisp white letter; the man who had been talking. Gil was at least a head and a half taller than Oz, with dark wavy hair resembling seaweed that almost covered the amber eyes of a raven. He dressed in black too, making the comparison to a raven all the more glaring.

"Is it from Ada? Uncle Oscar? Little Echo?" Oz asked eagerly, holding his hand out desperately for the envelope, but Gil didn't had it to him as expected.

"None of the above." A smirk was on the older man's face as he stood.

"...then who?" Oz tilted his head slightly to the side, giving up momentarily on getting the letter, as a dog would when confused. _Who would send him _letters_ other than his family and friends?_

"It says from the 'Pantomhives.' Didn't Sir Oscar mention them once?" Gil replied as he brought the letter down to examine it.

"Maybe," the blonde shrugged, but grinned at his friend, "well hand it over and let's see what it says!"

With that, Oz leapt from the chair, which promptly toppled over sideways. It landed on the plush carpet with a muffled bang; a few of the pictures on the walls shook at the impact.

Gil handed the letter over with a sigh, though he was smiling slightly as he watched Oz picked impatiently at the wax seal on the back of the letter. The wax flaked off in small chunks, lodging itself under Oz's nails as he tried to forcibly remove it. However, with a final grumble the majority of the seal fell away and Oz tore the envelope open and pulled out the inner paper.

Joyously, Oz unfolded the thick parchment and began to read, his emerald eyes skimming across the page quickly:

_Oz Vessalius,_

_Though I have no recollection of ever having meeting you, I have been informed that we are distant relatives. However I have heard that you are part of an organization called Pandora, therefore I call upon you for help. _

_London is being plagued by a relentless murderer, yet again, who leaves his victims in rather unsettling states. They are calling the murderer 'the Queen of Hearts'. You'll understand if you more if you see them, which leads me on to why I am writing this letter._

_As a Phantomhive I have ensured the Queen that I will purge London of this killer, yet I cannot do this alone, so I took it upon myself to ask you for your assistance in this matter._

_You need to travel to London to assist me in catching this vicious murderer, if convenient. If inconvenient you need to come anyway. Surely you could send one of Pandora's workers?_

_Reply ASAP._

_Regards,_

_Earl Ciel Phantomhive._

Oz read through the letter twice, trying to recall if he had ever heard that name before and understanding the formal writing. He was going to read it again, when Gil's patience snapped.

"Well, what does it say?" he asked moving around Oz to read the letter over his shoulder. The blonde looked up, slightly troubled.

"He wants me to head to London to catch a killer." As he spoke, he handed the letter to Gil's gloved hands. There was a pause as his valet read the letter too.

"'Unsettling state?'" Gil finally said, "do you think it's a chain?"

Oz's eyebrows drew together as he thought, "maybe. It's likely if he's calling for Pandora's help-but won't we already have information on that?"

There was a pause in which the two thought, before Oz grabbed Gil's sleeve and began to pull him from the room.

"We should really tell Break about this-we can organize who will go!" he said, his bright grin back.

"Who said you were even going?" Gil spluttered at an attempt of arguing. Although he knew it was pointless-once Oz had decided to do something he didn't give up easily.

At least the blonde eventually let go of Gil's sleeve as they made their way through the manor. They were headed to the dining room, a place that Break was sure to be, where Break was, Lady Sharon was.

Sure enough, when Oz broke through the tall oak doors to the dining room, Break was lounging on the luxurious sofa, sipping tea and eating cake. Sharon was sat next to him, her petite face obscured by a romance novel, her tea sat in a tea cup on the table. They may have looked strange to others, with Break's white hair and his crimson red eye-the only one that was visible, matched with the young Lady's fuchsia eyes and quiet demeanour. They both looked up as the two entered, Oz waving the letter excitedly.

"Break, Lady Sharon! We think there's a chain in England!" he ran to the two and handed the letter over as he sat on the floor on the opposite side of the table.

"Ooh? Really?" Break said lazily, stabbing the cake with his fork, before swallowing it whole, the doll on his shoulder appeared to giggle. Lady Sharon, however, took the letter, read it quickly, then placed it on the table.

"Are you going to go, Master Oz?" She said, reaching forward to take a sip of her tea.

"Well, he has asked me to. It would be rude to decline, wouldn't it?" Oz replied, resting his chin on his arms as he leant on the table.

"Not unless you're busy. You aren't forgetting your current aims, are you, Mister Oz?" Break interupted, his eye boring into the boys. Oz looked at the table.

"To find Alice's memories. I remember." He mumbled, thinking of the girl that he had made a contract with on his fifteenth birthday.

"Maybe they're in England." Lady Sharon suggested.

"Maybe what are in England?" a new voice demanded. The four turned to see a girl of no more than fifteen approaching them, her long, chocolate coloured hair trailing behind her and her violet eyes narrowed against the group.

"Alice!" Oz leapt up, grabbing the letter, before crossing the room to explain the situation. "This boy named Ciel has asked me to come to England to help catch a murderer, and we were just wondering whether it would be a good idea to go or not."

Alice frowned at the boy, "you realize you're my servant, right? You're not leaving me."

"He's not your slave, you stupid rabbit!" Gil snapped at the girl, who looked at him scornfully.

"_Anyway_," Oz stepped in between the two, grinning to ease the tension. "It is true that I can't leave Alice like that. I'm her contractor after all-and we might find some of her memories there."

"My memories?" the girl questioned, Oz nodded.

"They're scattered everywhere, so who's to say they aren't there?" he replied.

"Well it's settled then!" Break clapped his hands together in delight, "you and mister Alice can go to England to help Mr Phantomhive. All sorted."

"It'll be a lot quieter without you two here." Lady Sharon added.

"Hold on." Gil interrupted. "I'm going too."

"You are?" Oz said, his eyes twinkling, whilst Break chuckled, but his face was serious.

"Of course, the valet could never leave his young master's side, could he?"

"It's not that-if they run into trouble they won't be able to release the B-rabbit's powers without me!" Gil spat, but his stare down with the white haired man was cut short by Oz hugging him.

"That amazing! It'll be just like old times-right?" he paused for a moment, enjoying the warmth that his best friend provided.

"Well, I should get going with a reply. I hope Ciel thinks it's okay that I'm bringing two extras along with me!" Oz crossed to the fair side of the room, to a chest of drawers and pulled out some paper, along with a quill pen.

"Probably," Alice muttered, moving so that she sat beside Oz as he wrote. "Just explain why and he'll get it."

Oz gave a laugh, dipping the quill in ink. "I don't think that's the best idea. I bet he hasn't even heard of the Abyss, let alone Chains."

"What's England like, Oz?" Alice waited for Oz to look her in the eyes, but he didn't.

"I don't know," he sounded uncharacteristically depressed, though a second later he broke into a gentle smile. "I guess we'll know once we get there!"

Alice placed her chin on the table and watched Oz continue to write the letter disinterestedly. Lady Sharon and Break had gone back to their tea and romance novel, and Gil had disappeared-probably to organize a carriage to take them to Earl Phantomhive's residence.

After a fair amount of time, Oz put the quill down, biting his lip as he read through what he had put. He handed it to Alice, it had many smudges on it, but it read:

_To Earl Ciel Phantomhive,_

_I would be delighted to come to England personally to help you with this matter. I've always wanted to visit, so it would be amazing to spend some time there-even in such grim circumstances._

_I wouldn't worry about unsettling scenes-I've seen my fair share of horrors in my time so I'm sure I'll be able to handle it._

_In addition, I feel I should inform you that I'm bringing two of my associates with me-their names are Alice and Gilbert-I hope that you'll be able to find accommodation for all of us. It's quite important that we stay close to each other._

_We are planning to get the next carriage available and head to England straight away-hopefully this letter will arrive before then._

_Sincerely,_

_Oz Vessalius, of the Bezarius Dukedom._

_P.S: I can't wait to meet you!_

Alice's eyes skimmed over it before she placed it down on the table. Oz looked at her from under his fringe.

"Do you think it's okay? It's not too casual is it?" he asked, slightly nervous. Alice shook her head.

"Geez. It's fine, if anything it's way too formal." She replied, stretching her arms above her as she yawned.

"It's meant to be. I think Ciel's a pretty important person...I wonder what he's like."

"Don't you know him?" Alice raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"No. I've never met him before." Oz rubbed the back of his neck, looking a little more nervous. Alice opened her mouth to say something, but Gil barged back into the room. She glared at him for interrupting.

"A carriage is leaving for northern France right now. If we hurry we can get on it, then get a ship to England from there." He said, panting a little. Oz jumped up.

"Sure. Guess we'll be going then-goodbye Lady Sharon, Break!" he said, waving as he left, Alice close on his tail.

"Bye-bye, Mister Oz!" Break waved back, a smile so wide it was almost creepy on his face. His doll, Emily, rattled as it said good-bye too.

The three hurried out of the mansion and quickly climbed into the carriage that had pulled up outside. Gil was the last one in and closed the door behind them.

Oz leaned back into the cushioned, ruby seat of the carriage, "so how comes we were able to catch this so quickly?"

"The driver said that he was heading to northern France anyway, and that we were welcome to come along, so long as we weren't too noisy." At this, he looked pointedly at Alice, who stuck her pointed tongue out at him.

"What about our luggage, seaweed head?" she snickered, hoping that he was caught out by that detail.

"It's on the top of the carriage, stupid rabbit. We hadn't unpacked from our last trip, so I just brought it down." Gil smirked at gaining the upper hand, which only widened when Alice turned to the window, instead of yelling back at him.

Oz sighed at his companion's behavior, they were always fighting like this. Once it had gotten so bad that the whole carriage had rocked back and forth. He looked up at Alice, she was pouting slightly as she looked out of the window, and suddenly as he looked at her he realized how pretty she was. How her hair was glossy and shone in the sunlight as it tumbled down, the delicate arch of her nose and the intriguing violet eyes with catlike pupils. Suddenly, she turned slightly and her gaze met his. She raised an eyebrow at him, seemingly amused at something.

"Oz, are you coming down with a fever?" the blonde jumped slightly as Gil placed his hand on Oz's forehead, "your face is bright red."

"Ah, yes. I mean no. I'm fine." Oz stuttered, backing away from the touch. Gil looked dubious but didn't press him further.

"How far is it? This is taking forever." Alice moaned, sighing heavily.

"It's not going to take five minutes! It's a long way so we might as well get a little rest." Gil replied, an edge to his voice.

"It seems a waste of such a nice day to be travelling." Oz remarked, leaning on the side of the window so that he could look out at the beautiful sky once more.

He didn't remember his eyes dropping, but eventually found himself in a dream. It was a confusing blur of images from his coming of age ceremony; the Baskervilles arriving, getting dragged into the Abyss by dark wings, being attacked by the Chain Mad Baby and finally, calling Alice's name so that they could complete the contract.

Alice was a Chain, a being of the Abyss, that went by the name of B-Rabbit or the Bloody Black Rabbit. Their contract allowed her a body outside of the Abyss so that she could retrieve her memories, Oz had agreed because her power had allowed them both to escape from the Abyss. Over the time that they had returned, they had learned that ten years had passed since Oz's fifteenth birthday and that Alice had once been human. Also, and probably most importantly, Oz was the reincarnation of Jack Vessalius, hero of the Tradgedy of Sablier.

They now sought the truth to that incident as well as Alice's remaining memories.

Oz found himself being shaken awake, when he opened his eyes it took him a while to focus on Gil. "Nnnh?" he asked dreamily.

"We're at the port. We need to grab a boat to England." Gil said, offering his master a hand up. Oz accepted and stepped out of the carriage, yawning.

"Sweet dreams?" Alice replied, to receive a chuckle in reply.

"Same old, same old. I'm getting used to nightmares." He was smiling as he said the words, but it troubled Alice slightly that he would say something like that.

"Stop standing around and grab a boat." Gil steered the two down the dock. Alice seemed fascinated by the lights dancing on the ocean, and didn't seem to want to tear herself away from it. Oz had barely seen the ocean before either and couldn't look away from the waves splashing against the poles.

It took a while, but they managed to board a small sailboat that was heading for England just as the sun began to set. They were told that the journey would take two hours at best, so got comfortable in the back of the sailboat, there was plenty of room as it was manned by only one person.

Oz watched the sunset, occasionally chatting to Gil about his favourite series of books; Holy Knight, which he still wasn't current with. He turned as he felt something land against his shoulder and was shocked to see Alice slumped onto him, breathing deeply as she slept. He broke into a small smile.

"Guess it's been a long day, huh?" he said to Gil, who shrugged.

"We've had longer ones, and probably will get a series of long days by the time we're through. Are you sure you want to do this?" he replied, his yellow eyes suddenly full of worry.

"Too late to turn back now!" Oz laughed, putting his arm around Alice's shoulders so that she rested against him better. She muttered something incomprehensible against his neck as he did so; he couldn't resist a smile to himself.

The stars did nothing to brighten the darkness that enveloped them as they reached England. Gil paid the sailor, a young man with thick shoulder length hair as they unloaded from the boat.

"Thanks-be careful." He called, waving after them. Oz walked backwards and waved back.

"We will!" he shouted, but was knocked forwards by something behind him. He turned as he fell over, an act that caused him to land on his backside. Oz winced, the pavement hurt a lot more than he thought it would, then looked up to meet the eyes of the man he had bumped into.

He was a tall, thin man dressed all in black, with the long hair to match his fashion sense. His eyes were the colour of fallen blood, though this was hardly different for Oz. A lot of people he had recently come into contact with shared this trait. The man stood in front of a carriage that had been parked on the cobblestone street.

The man offered Oz a hand up, "my apologies, Sir." His accent was undeniably upper-class British. Oz smiled as he accepted the hand.

"Nah, it's my fault really. I should have been looking where I was going." He said, dusting his checkered shorts off.

"Oz, we need to get going." Gil said, checking the time on his pocket watch.

"Oz? As in Sir Oz Vessalius?" the mysterious man asked, the short boy nodded.

"That's right. Why?" Oz replied. The man knocked lightly on the door of the carriage.

"We've been waiting for you to arrive. I must say, your letter arrived quicker than expected." The man replied, as the door of the carriage opened.

"So that must mean," Oz looked at the person in the door of the carriage, "you're Ciel Phantomhive?"

**(A/N): And I'm back again~! You just can't get rid of me!**

**This is the part where I reply to your reviews and go through points of the chapter I thought needed to be addressed.**

**-Break calls Alice 'Alice-kun' in the manga. I'm pretty sure that he's making a point about her femininity so I translated it to 'Mister.'**

**-I didn't know whether or not to capitalise words such as 'Abyss' or 'Chains', but using the blurbs of the mangas I decided to go along with it.**

**-This may sound dumb, but-can Alice even read? She acts a lot younger than she is and it didn't even occur to me before I started writing. She doesn't appear to have many books in her old room, but maybe Jack taught her? Idk.**

**-When I was writing the boat bit, I was reminded of a film that begins with the main character arriving at London at night. Guess what film it is and I'll give you virtual pies in the next chapter! \(^^)/**

**-I have no idea how Oz's letter got to Ciel so fast. Let's not question it and say that Pandora have magical mail boxes.**

**AAAAAAAAAAAND THAT'S ALL.**

**Please review and tell me what you think! What characters do you want to come into the story? Do you want any pairings to come in? (I've practically shipped everything in Pandora Hearts at least once, even if it's for a little while, so I'm pretty open to suggestions. Also-a terribly guilty CielXSebastian shipper.)**

**And I'll see you next time! Bye bye~**


	2. Chapter 2: Phantomhive

**(A/N): Hi guys! ^-^ This got a lot more attention that I thought it would so early on. I hope this is an early enough update for you-it's been hard for me to have time to write this up-I've been all sorts of places. It's nice to meet you all, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Warning: It's a little bit more of a filler chapter, where we get to see characters interact with each other. However, I have big plans for the next two and things should start to get a little more exciting.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, Pandora Hearts or the ability to hit a spider with a cardboard tube.**

Chapter Two: Phantomhive

Ciel looked down from the carriage steps, looking down at the boy who called himself 'Oz Vessalius'. He was a lot younger than the Earl had expected, though he was hardly one to talk; being only thirteen himself. The boy seemed surprised at his age too, his green eyes were wide.

_'A very distant relative indeed,' _the young earl mused to himself, scanning Oz's sandy hair and bright eyes, a big contrast to Ciel's own blue-grey hair and deep blue eyes. Of course, the eye hidden by his eye patch glowed similarly to Oz's, but only when he was giving Sebastian an order.

"Yes. I'm Ciel Phantomhive." He replied in a monotone, Oz thought for a moment before he held out his hand, presumably to shake.

"It's nice to meet you. Isn't it funny that we're related yet we've never even heard of each other?" he gave a lighthearted laugh as the two shook hands, Ciel raised an eyebrow. Before he could ask anything more, the brown haired girl next to Oz let out a snort.

"How're you an earl? You're younger than Sharon for crying out loud!"

Ciel immediately took a dislike to her, it wasn't just the fact that she was annoyingly loud and obnoxious, but she was showing off a lot of leg for a lady, with her short black shirt and white boots.

"Don't be so rude!" the dark haired man next to her yelled, Ciel spotted the friction between them straight away. So far, the dark haired man was his favourite-or at least seemed the most normal.

"I wouldn't expect you to know, anyway. My parents died two years ago in a fire, leaving me the head of the estate." Ciel explained, he made sure his voice was suitably cold as he laid eyes on the girl. He noticed Oz's glance, 'play nice' written all over his features.

Ciel glanced at Sebastian, for these were hardly the people they were expecting. He merely glared when he saw Sebastian's amused grin; stupid demon.

"Come into the carriage, I'll take you to my estate." The Earl said after a heavy pause, retreating back inside the carriage, leaving Sebastian to deal with the three freaks outside.

Sure enough, Oz entered with his two companions, Ciel made a brief wish that the blonde boy wouldn't sit next to him, but he did. The other two sat opposite, with Sebastian entering behind them and sitting on Ciel's bench.

The boy next to him stretched his arms and yawned as the carriage started moving, making sounds like a baby bear.

"I feel like I haven't done anything today! We've just been sat around travelling." He fell back against the seat with a thump, an act that made Ciel move closer to the window. He could see the darkened London streets rushing past outside, mingled with the sound of the horses hooves, for a moment he wondered if there were any demons hiding in the shadows.

"Was it that long a journey?" he asked disinterestedly, for the sake of being polite, though he wasn't really interested.

"Yeah," Oz yawned loudly. "It took ages!"

Ciel rolled his visible eye; _it can't have been that long_. He was bored of the energetic teen already; anyone would think that he was older than Oz.

Silence fell awkwardly over the group once more, before the older boy seemed to realize that he hadn't introduced his companions.

"Oh, Ciel. This is Alice, she's one of my best friends," he said gesturing to the brown haired girl, who looked surprised. In the dark no one could see the red on her cheeks.

"Shut up. You're my servant and that's final." She snapped, Ciel bit back a dark chuckle.

"You mean you're a servant to someone?" a smirk appeared in his face.

"No. Not really-it's a little complicated," Oz laughed, not knowing how bad this looked to the noble in the carriage. "Anyway, this is Gil, he's been with me ever since I was little. He's my valet and my other best friend."

"I prefer Gilbert." The dark haired man said, his amber eyes glinting in the dark of the carriage. It was unnerving how similar to a crow he was, in a way, he reminded Ciel of Sebastian.

Ciel nodded, "it's a pleasure to meet you." His words may have been kind, but he spoke with a monotone voice. He then supposed that he should introduce Sebastian and made a vague gesture to his butler.

"This is Sebastian, he serves me."

"Oh?" no matter what Ciel seemed to say, Oz looked like a hyper Labrador. "Are you two friends then?" he looked between the two, not admitting that they were a bit of an odd pair-though he couldn't talk.

Sebastian gave a dry laugh that seemed a little refined, "I wouldn't say that."

"Sebastian is my servant. Nothing more." Ciel barely illuminated the subject. Oz's eyebrows rose, he looked somewhat disappointed.

Ciel supposed he made friends with all of _his _servants-if he actually had any. He let out a sigh at that thought; this boy was hardly the noble helper that he had hoped for. He had heard such interesting things about him that he felt slightly disappointed.

"So, what is your relation to Jack Bezarius?" he felt he was going out on a limb by asking, but that was the very reason he was so interested in meeting with Oz. Not because of the murders, exactly, Sebastian and he were more than capable of solving them alone. He wasn't so sure they were even related. No, it was Oz's link to the hero who called himself Jack Bezarius that had gained Ciel's interest.

"Jack?" the blonde boy looked confused, sad and a little hurt. "People say that I'm his reincarnation-he says it himself. Though, I'm not too sure about _that._"

"We've yet to discover much about Jack." Gilbert intervened; his eyes were slightly cold as though he mistrusted Ciel. He didn't particularly mind, he didn't trust this lot as far as he could throw them.

After that, it was quiet in the carriage, Gilbert and Sebastian mostly stayed silent, whilst Oz chatted between Ciel and Alice; who were both quite reluctant to reply. Ciel however, wanted to keep in Oz's good books, after all, he may become important later.

Eventually, the carriage stopped. Oz jumped out happily, still resembling a hyperactive puppy. Alice hopped out almost gratefully, as though she hated being trapped in there; Ciel noted how she seemed to ignore Sebastian's hand down. It appeared that only Ciel and Gilbert left the carriage like civilized people-Gilbert was still holding his place as his favourite.

The Phantomhive manor was surrounded by lush green lawns and uniform hedges, whilst the manor itself was a sandy yellow colour-though that was hard to distinguish in the dark-with a grey roof, stretching for what appeared to be four wings.

"Sweet! Almost reminds me of home." Oz commented, a happy smile back on his face.

"Home? You mean the Vessalius manor?" Ciel narrowed his eyes suspiciously, whilst Oz shrugged in response.

"Yeah, I guess." _Vague. _Ciel couldn't help but think to himself.

"Thank you Snake, you may retire now if you wish." Sebastian turned to the footman, who climbed down from his seat.

He was thin, with snowy white hair and sickly pale skin that in places resembled lime green snake skin. In fact, an orange snake circled his shoulders; another khaki-coloured one encircled the man's waist.

"Thank you so much for driving us all the way here!" Oz gushed, an act that caused Ciel to look away; _how embarrassing._

"It's no problem; Snake did most of the driving, says Emily." The man replied, Oz looked a little confused for a moment, looking at the real snake. Before he broke into another grin.

"She's so sweet. This is Emily?" he boldly stroked the snake under its chin. It reached out a little, looking as though it was enjoying itself.

"Yes, says Emily. This is Snake, and I am Wordsworth, says Wordsworth." Snake replied, as he looked at Oz with slitted, venomous green eyes.

"Well it's nice to meet all of you-I'm Oz." The blonde boy grinned, Ciel shot Sebastian a look and immediately the butler took action.

"Sir, I think we should go inside now. It's cold and I'm sure you are tired," he said, Oz turned and nodded, looking slightly dazed.

"Oh, yeah. Okay," he nodded, following the others as they started up to the estate. He expected Alice to be making snarky remarks, but it looked as though she was falling asleep where she was standing.

Eventually, the group made it up the long gravel path and stood before the huge front doors of the mansion. It looked even more impressive up close.

Sebastian opened the doors for them and everyone stepped inside, grateful for the warmth on their faces. The entrance hall was lit mainly by a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling, though there were other lamps, each candle letting of a small, yellow glow that caused shadows to be cast over the walls; creating spooky shapes. The dark pillars scattered around the room did nothing to brighten that mood, there were plush red stairs that led up to a landing, then to the upper levels. All in all, in appeared as dignified as the manor looked from the outside.

There were three people standing by the stairs, Oz assumed they were the other servants from the way they bowed and chorused "welcome home, sir." They all seemed slightly surprised to see the three Pandora agents next to their master.

"Yes, this is Oz Vessalius and his..." Ciel paused, as though wanting a better word. "Friends, Gilbert and Alice."

Oz smiled at the three, there was a maid with cherry coloured hair in pigtails and misty glasses that made it hard to see her eyes clearly, a young man sporting long strawberry blonde hair, his fringe neatly clipped back from his turquoise eyes and an older man with shorter, dirty blonde hair in a cook's uniform; a cigarette dangling from his lip.

He would've enjoyed staying and chatting to them, but he could tell everyone was pretty tired, so allowed himself to be lead to his room.

Maybe he could talk to the three servants tomorrow...

-The next Day-

The light filtering through the window is what woke Oz the following morning. He opened his eyes a crack, seeing the watery sunlight shining through the gap in the curtains. Upon seeing the high paned window he realized he was not in his room, thus had a moment of panic before he remembered his journey.

He looked around at the room Ciel had leant to him. He'd said it was basic and small, but that only seemed to prove that he didn't know much about how other people lived. The room was at least twice the size of the one he stayed in at the Rainsworth estate, complete with a velvet four poster bed, incredibly wide dresser and a wardrobe so big that Oz was scared he'd fall into Narnia if he used it.

He sat up in bed, leaning against the pillows which crinkled a little; a sign that they were filled with feathers not stuffing. _It's certainly not an uncomfortable place to stay_, Oz mused to himself as he reached for his pocket watch on the side table of dark wood. He clicked it upon, figuring that if it was after eight then he'd go and check on the others; though he really wanted breakfast too.

His heart sunk into his rumbling stomach as he realized it was only half seven. There was no way he could sit around for another half an hour, he was too pumped to explore this mansion to let that happened. Though, the last time he explored a mansion he had found his mysterious pocket watch, almost got killed by one of Alice's memories and allowed Gil to be possessed by the infamous Baskervilles.

He slipped out from under the thick covers of his bed and pulled on his usual outfit; a plain shirt with a scarlet tie and leather waistcoat, with emerald checkered shorts and chestnut coloured riding boots. As Break once said, '_that looks utterly daft_', but it suited him and he enjoyed wearing it.

Oz placed the pocket watch in his own pocket and left the room. Emerging into a long corridor that stretched in either direction, with a door every ten paces or so, he looked both ways. For the life of him couldn't remember which way he had come the previous night, though he knew Gil and Alice were in the rooms next door.

He shrugged to himself before turning left. It was pretty dark in the corridor since there was only a window at the very end and the lamps on the walls had died out in the night; whether being extinguished or finishing their wax. Looking around with curiosity, Oz saw that the walls were quite bare, safe for the candles; there were no portraits or pictures of other relations.

The blonde boy jumped as the door to his right opened suddenly, revealing the younger man he had seen last night. On closer inspection he had a straw hat pulled so that it covered his neck, gardening gloves and long shorts. Oz made a wild guess at what he did in the manor.

"Oh, sir. You're up already?" he said, speaking with an underlying cockney accent. Oz had a sheepish look on his face.

"Yeah, sorry. I just thought I'd take a look around, if that's okay." He hadn't before considered how rude it was to traipse through the mansion of his own accord.

"Oh that's fine. I'd happily take you through the gardens myself if you wanted." The boy replied, a bright smile appearing on his face. Oz couldn't help but return the gesture; he had a feeling they'd get along really well.

"That'd be so cool! Do you take care of the gardens, then? What's your name?" he questioned.

"Yes I do, well...I try. I'm Finny."

Oz opened his mouth to reply, though he was interrupted by a yell from down the corridor. Both blonde boys turned to the noise, it sounded as if there was quite a commotion going on.

"Uh oh," Oz bit his lip. "That sounds like Alice."  
"The girl you were travelling with?" Finny asked, receiving a quick nod in reply before they went to investigate.

The shouting was occurring from the room next to Oz's, confirming all suspicions of Alice being the culprit, but the words she was saying were unclear due to the thick door.

"I think we should check on her." Finny mumbled, reaching for the doorknob. He turned it and the door swung open, unfortunately the handle was still in the gardener's hand. He turned a little pink and muttered something about being quite strong.

Oz only dwelled on that for a moment, before he peered into the room. Alice was standing on a chair, pressing herself against the wall like a cornered cat, whilst the maid they had seen the night before was holding a dress and looking scared of the teenager.

"Alice? What's, uh, going on?" the smaller blonde asked as he stepped into the room.

"Apparently I have to wear a big fancy dress like Sharon!" Alice screeched from her corner, her violet eyes aflame. Oz almost felt a sweat drop roll down his forehead; _that was what this was all about?_

"The master said to make sure you were properly dressed, he did." The maid muttered, appearing fairly flustered about the whole affair. Oz walked over to her and spoke in a low tone.

"Maybe we should leave her in her own clothes for a while, it's not like we're going out is it? I'll talk to her later about it, don't worry."

"Yeah Mey-rin, I'm sure no one will mind if she dresses how she wants for breakfast at least." Finny chipped in from the doorway, jiggling the door handle back into place to try to cover up his accident. Mey-rin agreed more than happily and escorted the two down the corridor.

Alice turned to Oz was they walked.

"Do you think he'll have meat there?" she said seriously, but Oz found himself giggling a little.

"I don't think so. It'll probably be pastries and fruit." His mouth was watering at the thought of it.

Soon, the arrived at a long dining room, with eight paned windows at intervals on the far wall and a large wooden table in the middle, at which Ciel Phantomhive was already sat, his butler behind him. Alice bit back a laugh when she noticed his feet didn't quite reach the floor, for she knew Oz would scold her for doing so. She had no desire to get into another argument this morning.

"Good morning." The young earl said, sipping tea from a china teacup as he watched the two sit down across from him.

"Gil's not up yet?" Oz's tone was cheerful as he remembered the many rude awakenings Gil received from him as a child. His favourite by far was putting one of Ada's cats, Dinah, on Gil's head; for he was petrified of cats.

"No, I thought it best to let you all lay in as much as possible." Ciel replied tactfully, as Alice rested her elbows on the table, her head in her hands.

Oz waved him off, "it's fine, it's fine. Plus, the sooner he wakes up the sooner we can eat."

The earl raised an eyebrow at this remark, but then turned slightly so it was evident he was talking to Finny. "Would you wake up Mr Gilbert for us, then?"

The gardener nodded and ran out the room. The maid followed suit quickly, muttering something about getting crockery out.

"What _is _for breakfast?" Alice asked bluntly.

"Today I have prepared a blueberry banana cake with cream cheese icing, with your choice of toast or scones." Sebastian replied, Oz's eyes widened.

"Cake? For _breakfast_? Break will be jealous." He commented, leaning back in the big chair.

"Serves that stupid clown right." Alice muttered, as the door to the dining room opened once more and Gil walked in, Finny at his heels.

"Don't you need to weed the roses, Finny?" Sebastian said, as the cook walked in with the breakfast dishes. Alice sat up a little straighter, watching the food like a hawk. Finny nodded at least ten times as he exited, the chief with him.

The three from Pandora eagerly tucked into the cake that had been made, it was clearly made by someone who knew what they were doing, since it was heavenly. Ciel watched them with a hint of amusement.

"What's the plan, then? Are we going to start our investigation?" Oz asked between bites, licking cream cheese off of his bottom lip.

"Well, I have paperwork to do this morning that urgently needs to be completed. However, after lunch we can head into London to start our work. I thought it would be best to show you the corpse before we begin to catch the culprit." Ciel explained, finishing his tea and putting it to one side.

"Where do they keep the victims?" Gil intervened, his eyes narrowed in question.

"At a place they call 'The Undertakers'. Sebastian, I presume you have payment for him?" the earl turned in time to see his butler smile and bow.

"Of course, my lord."

"Then it looks as though we have the whole morning to do as we please!" Oz grinned at his companions, thinking he would start by helping Finny out in the rose garden.

So far, he was enjoying England.

**(A/N): *squee* We got my favourite character in! I'm a giant Snake fan =u= he's so fun to write too~! If you don't know him, he's from the manga, but is going to feature in the new series of Black Butler (we've got 5 days to do guys! \(^^)/)**

**First, I'll review my notes for the chapter:**

**-Ciel's age annoyed me - I couldn't remember when he turned 13 in the manga...but let's just say he is in this fanfiction.**

**-Bard's ciggy is a METAPHOR! (Sorry, it's all we said at a cosplay meet I went too, e.g: those berries are a metaphor) Speaking of which, I hope you don't mind how I spelt Mey-rin's name-there's just so many different ways X3**

**-We have our first timeskip of this fanfic! *wipes tear from eye* It's truly becoming a fanfiction now, isn't it? I don't use them often, by the way, normally it's if there are two groups of people and I switch to the other group, or a large skip to the next day, or next week (sometimes).**

**-Okay, but where does Oz actually live? In the manga he appears to just have no home, but in the anime they talk about him staying with Sharon-that's why I'm writing about the Rainsworth estate so much.**

**-I hope you all drooled at the thought of the breakfast cake =u= I had to do a little research on deserts that were suitable for breakfast. I'll probably find something just as nice for their lunch. :3 I like that kind of research.**

**That was all for that. So, let's move onto review replies:**

**Four of you said you were enjoying it and wanted an update-I hope this was just as good and wasn't too long a wait. I've got a day off tommorow so I might get a head start and aim for another update in about a week.**

**Catrina7077: I ship OzAlice a lot too X3 I'm considering getting them together in this, but have found myself considering romance between Ciel and Alice as well XD Talk about a wierd ship. Lizzie is awesome-I can agree with you there! (Once my friend called my Lizzie when we where watching Black Butler together CX)**

**Oh yes-no one guessed the boatman's identity. It was the guy from Sweeney Todd. *eats meat pie***

**A special shout-out to Black Butler wikia for giving me colour references!**

**Question to reviewers: what are your favourite characters from each show?**

**AAAAAAND, I'LL SEE YOU ALL NEXT TIME!**


	3. Chapter 3: Joker

**(A/N): Phew! I've been doing well with updating this regularly, compared to my last one! AND it's almost half term so I'll have a lot of time to right then. (Though I also think having a plan helps :B)**

**This chapter should be a lot better than the previous one-but not as great as the next one. In this one we really find out what's been going on with these murders. The Undertaker is also in this one and he was really fun to write! ^^ I might put him in more.**

**So, without further ado~**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, Pandora Hearts or a Ciel Phantomhive plushy**

Chapter Three: Joker

Whilst Alice stayed for seconds and Gil retired to his room, Oz ran down the mansion's corridor. He was desperate to go out into the gardens and find Finny, but there was no point in going there _just _yet. As said previously, he really wanted to explore this mansion.

So Oz headed towards steps leading to an upper level of the mansion, the windows let more light in on this level and he could see his surroundings more clearly. The upper floor of the mansion was much like the previous one, consisting of long corridors, broken up only by the nameless doors.

He tried the one opposite the stairs first, turning the handle quickly, thinking it would be easier to slip in quickly in case Ciel noticed. It was absurd to be sneaking around the house of one of his _family_, but he got the feeling that Ciel didn't like him very much.

The handle jammed almost as soon as it started moving, Oz's hand slipped and he fell onto the carpet, whacking his head on the windowsill as he went down. He lay there, his head throbbing, on the plush carpet. _At least it wasn't wooden flooring_, he thought to himself grimly.

"Are you all right, sir?" Oz heard a female voice ask. He reluctantly opened his eyes to see Mey-rin hovering above him.

"I...guess. Would you help me up?" he asked weakly, holding his hand out as he felt slightly dizzy from the impact.

"That was quite a fall you took there sir, it was." Mey-rin replied, pulling Oz to his feet. He stumbled a little, holding his head and leaning against the windowsill.

"Ah, just Oz is fine." He smiled, a little surprised when the maid's cheeks turned pink.

"Y-yes sir-Oz." She said quickly, before she hurried off.

"Wait!" the blonde boy called out. "Is this door locked or something?"

"I assume so. The master keeps a lot of doors locked, he does." Mey-rin turned slightly, before she continued on her way. Oz watched her go, it was impossible to tell how she was feeling due to those round glasses obscuring most of her face. He thought for a moment, Ciel was obviously keeping a lot of secrets, he was too of course, but he was intrigued to find more about the Phantomhives.

A loud bark pulled the young boy from his thoughts and he turned to see a face pressed up against the window. Oz gave out a yelp; there was a wildman pressed up against the glass, with unruly grey hair and no clothes.

"Oh dear." The voice at his side made him jump, but he relaxed a little when he saw the Phantomhive butler-Sebastian.

"W-who is that?" Oz's voice was a little higher than usual, he was uncomfortable by the man's nudity and from all the surprises he was having.

"That? This is Pluto, he's...a hellhound." Sebastian smiled as he said it, which put Oz slightly on edge. More so that the man was nuzzling against the window, appearing to whine for Sebastian to notice him.

"He's not a dog though. He's a man." The young boy stammered, determinedly not looking at the window.

"He can change his form, bizarre isn't it?" The butler said, shooing the dogman away from the window before he turned back to Oz. "May I ask what you're doing up here?"

"Uh..." Oz paused, not wanting to say that he was snooping. "I guess I got a little lost. What about you?"

"I've finished cleaning the rooms on the lower level, so I've come to sort these rooms out." Sebastian replied simply, heading down the hall, leaving Oz wondering how anyone could clean all those rooms in mere minutes.

Soon though, Oz felt like it was time to go outside and take Finny up on his offer.

It took him a while to get to the grounds and even longer to find Finny, but eventually he found the gardener in front of a bush of roses so white they looked like tiny clouds.

"Finny!" he called, running to catch up.

Finny turned at the sound of the voice and gave a wide smile, "you made it then?" He watched the small boy approach.

"Yeah," Oz rested his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. Once he had done so, he observed the white roses, they looked immaculate. "Wow, they're really pretty."

Finny nodded, his sea coloured eyes glittering in his eagerness. "Yup, they're the young master's favourite roses."

"I know a family who grow black roses..." Oz mused, his usually happy look darkening a little as he remembered his past dealings with the Baskervilles. However, in a second he had a smile back on his face, as though he suddenly remembered to be optimistic. "So, how about that tour?"

Finny had a puzzled look on his face as he watched the sudden mood swing taking place in the shorter boy, but then decided that Oz reminded him off himself and smiled warmly once more.

-After Lunch-

Oz sighed, a content look on his face. "That was so good. I haven't had salmon like that in ages!" he visibly suppressed a burb, to which Ciel raised an eyebrow. They had dined at the Manor and now Gil, Oz, Ciel and Sebastian where heading out to the carriage to head to the place called 'the undertakers'.

"That was a fairly mediocre lunch," he paused as he looked around. "Where's that girl you were with, Alice?"

At this Gil and Oz shared a look and started to chuckle.

"Well," Oz choked out. "I assume she's still getting changed." Just the thought of Alice putting on English fashion tickled the pair greatly.

"What on earth do you mean?" Ciel asked bluntly.

They all turned as there was a loud bout of swearing and cussing, most of which was aimed at Oz, to see Alice approaching. Her eyebrows were deeply furrowed, with her mouth in a pout and a slight blush on her cheeks. What had their attention however, was Alice's clothing; it was a floor length maroon dress, the skirt of which parted to give way to black ruffles. A ruffle fell along her shoulder line, resting on the black outer corset.

Oz immediately felt his face go hot at the sight of her. Alice rarely wore dresses, the last time being when they visited the crazy Duke Barma, and his mind had been elsewhere then. Since Alice was so, in the nicest sense, rowdy; to see her so feminine made Oz acutely aware of how pretty she really was.

"You look nice," Gil said, badly covering up his laughter, by this time Alice had reached them and at his words, she promptly kneed him in the gut.

"Shut up, you jerk!" she snapped, her face a spectrum of reds. Oz swallowed the compliment he was about to give her, for fear of getting beat up too. Alice, seemingly dissatisfied with yelling at one person, turned to the young Earl. "And you! Why the hell would you put me into this ridiculous costume!?"

Ciel seemed blind to her anger and didn't even look at her as he replied. "If you dress like a normal woman then you won't attract attention."

"That is a good point." Oz nodded soberly, earning a daggered glare from Alice as he jumped into the carriage. There was so much stuffing in the seats that even as he landed full force, he couldn't feel the wood lying underneath.

Everyone followed slowly, Alice with some difficulty, but Oz leant her his hand to help her in. She plopped down next to him.

"Thanks." She said in a cold tone, leaning on the door frame bad temperedly. Oz gave a little smile to himself, thinking if doing little things like that earnt him that cute eye twinkle and childish pout then he'd have to become a true gentleman.

"So, are you going to tell us more about the murders on the way?" Gil broke the silence, looking at Ciel. He considered for a moment then nodded.

"Alright. There have been four murders to date, we assume they were committed by the same person by the crime scene. At each, there was a playing card; at three it was the queen of hearts, which earnt the murderer the nickname of 'the Queen of Hearts' from the press. However, at the last murder, the jack of clubs was found."

"So you contacted me because of my relation to Jack?" Oz leant forward, for now he understood the Earl's strange move. He smiled sneakily when Ciel gave a mute nod.

"That, and there was something unnatural about the state the bodies were in-something that linked into Pandora. Firstly, each body had its head decapitated, another reason they call the murderer the queen of hearts. The bodies also looked as though something had been taken from them internally, though I have not gotten close enough to examine this for myself." At this, Ciel glared at his crimson eyed butler, who smirked.

"I didn't feel it appropriate for a boy of your age to see, my lord." This response only earnt a snort from Ciel.

"Like I haven't seen worse," the navy haired boy muttered to himself, Oz related to the boy in that sense; he too had seen many things he wished he hadn't. "Anyway, the undertaker can fill us in more about the bodies. I thought Pandora would help best with this case, since they have taken similar cases under their wing."

Gil and Oz exchanged a knowing glance at that. Around their country, a rash of murders usually meant a contractor was involved. A contractor was a person who had made a deal with a chain that had crawled out of the abyss, in the hope that if they killed enough people, their wish would come true.

"What about the people who were murdered, have they any connection to each other?" Oz questioned, now that they had started talking about it, he wanted to solve this case. He felt as though he was being led on a string to his uncontrollable fate, though he had felt like this for months.

"Yes. That's another unusual thing about the murders. So far, they have all been women from the same family. Apart from the latest, this was, in fact, one of their sons."

"Queens and Jacks." Alice murmured, which made everyone turn to her in shock. She sighed at having to enlighten herself. "The women were all the queens on the card and the boy was the jack."

"That's an interesting theory." Sebastian said, his eyes glinting in amusement. Oz suppressed a shiver, for there was something that unnerved him about that butler.

-After reaching London-

Ciel knew the way to the Undertaker's very well by now, which was a fact he regarded with disdain. The guy was a lunatic, but he was very fluent with information.

So he lead the way there with the Pandora group, though the three were starting to seem less like professionals and more like his servants; a ragtag group.

"Oh? You have a cane? Why is that, do you have a problem with your legs or something?" Oz suddenly asked, looking at the cane Ciel used when he was out in London. The younger boy sighed.

"No, my legs are fine. The cane is so that people know I am of high rank." He replied.

"It helps people take him seriously," Sebastian added, which made Ciel glare at the tall man. It was a look of pure venom that said 'shut up'. He was going to say something a lot more dignified in response, but Sebastian stopped him from continuing with a hand on his shoulder. "My lord, we've arrived."

Ciel shook the hand of his shoulder and turned to the building in front of them. It looked fairly normal from the outside, the only thing out of place being a diamond shaped coffin and skulls on the sign that read 'Undertaker'. The young boy took a breath.

"Let's proceed." He waited for Sebastian to open the ebony coloured door for him and stepped in.

It was eerily quiet inside the shop, which was filled with coffins of every size and shape imaginable. So much so that he half expected Oz to cling onto his arm and cry that he was scared.

The Earl coughed in an attempt to bring the Undertaker out of hiding. As soon as he did so, the nearest coffin's lid creaked open.

"Earl Phantomhive," a voice drawled out from inside. This time, Oz really did jump, though thankfully he clung onto Gil's arm instead. They watched as the coffin lid fell to the floor and the man sat up in the coffin, a toothy smile on his face.

The Undertaker was a lanky man dressed in black robes and a top hat so tall it tilted precariously on his head whenever he moved in the slightest. What drew everyone's attention to him was his silver hair, it hung in a fringe that covered half his face and cascaded down his back.

"Are you here for a coffin today, my lord?" he giggled, moving so that he sat on the edge of the coffin, with his legs swinging down.

"Not today," Ciel replied monotonely. "I need information on the corpses in the Queen of Hearts case."

The Undertaker's grin shifted slightly. "Are you sure sweet Madam Red isn't behind it?"

"You know full well that she isn't able to." The young earl snapped, his fist clenching on his cane. His Aunt, commonly known as Madame Red had died a couple of months previously, and it was still quite a sensitive subject for him. Though he was trying his best to forget that terrible night, _and _that freak of a reaper.

"That's true enough I suppose. After all, the dead don't normally walk, do they?" the Undertaker replied, it seemed as though he was looking straight as Sebastian when he said it, his smile dropping for a second. This was yet another sore subject for the Earl at the present, as recently he had thought Sebastian had left him.

Thankfully, once the grave had been buried, the bell that signified the person had been buried alive started tolling and Sebastian was none the worse for wear.

"No." Ciel replied simply, though he couldn't resist a sideways glance at Sebastian as he did so.

"So my lord, are you ready to pay up for information?" the Undertaker continued, the wide smile back on his face in a flash.

"How much is it? I wouldn't want you to pay for it all by yourself!" Oz turned to Ciel, who actually gave a half smile before he responded.

"You needn't bother. It's not money he's after."

"Please my lord! Won't you give me true laughter? It wouldn't be that hard for you; whenever_ you _tell me a joke you get special offers, dontcha?" the Undertaker clutched at the front of Ciel's shirt. The boy didn't respond, he just looked pointedly at Sebastian, who nodded.

"Yes, my lord."

Ciel stepped away from the Undertaker, turning to the three workers from Pandora.

"We should step outside," he said, as he opened the door for himself. The wind hit them at full force as they did so and it was only then they noticed how stuffy it had been inside the building. "Sebastian's jokes are truly terrible."

"Why does he want a joke anyway?" the girl asked him, fiddling with the skirt of her dress. It struck him odd that she was so uncomfortable in clothes that were so mainstream in Britain.

"Because he is a weirdo." Ciel replied simply. His response seemed to amuse Oz, who stifled a giggle.

"Young master," they turned to see Sebastian standing in the doorway. "You can return now."

"That was quick. The limerick I presume?" Ciel asked as he stepped back into the Undertaker's once more. Sebastian nodded and the two seemed to share a secret smirk with one another.

As they entered, they observed the Undertaker laughing so hard that he could only bang one hand on the coffin. It was a while before his giggles subsided and he turned to the Earl.

"So, what is it you're after?" the white haired man asked with a final chuckle.

"Has there been anything unusual about the recent murders? Aside from the head business," he tackled the question he knew would lead to the most answers from the Pandora crew.

"Well yes, there has been something very troubling," the tall man mused as he walked behind the group. "They're missing something, inside."

"And that is?" Ciel said impatiently, as he knew all of this already.

"Their heart." The Undertaker had stopped behind Oz and placed a hand over the blonde's chest. He tapped the spot where Oz's heart was with a long, black fingernail. Oz had frozen and his breathing was shallow, Ciel supposed he didn't want the creepy man so close to him. However, the mystery returned, when Gilbert touched his left hand for a brief instant.

"A surgical removal?" Sebastian queried, perfectly guessing the question that had been on Ciel's lips.

"No," the Undertaker placed his palm on Oz's heart, before he let the blonde boy go. "Very messily-that was why there was so much blood at the scene. It appeared as though something had reached in and grabbed the victim's heart."

"That would take immense strength." Ciel pretended to ignore the shocked look that the Pandora workers exchanged with each other.

"Or a supernatural being," the Undertaker reckoned, standing in an empty coffin that was leaning against the wall.

"Thank you for your time. I think we have the information we need." Ciel nodded a farewell, as the door swung closed on the Undertaker's new hidey-hole. The group walked down the cobbled street in silence, but Ciel stopped outside a toy shop. Inside the shop windows was a menagerie of toys from the 'Funtom' company, all attracting a lot of attention from the children.

"I'm going to check how well the stock is selling here. Would you mind waiting out here?" he said with authority, before turning away without waiting for a reply. Sebastian started to follow him and he didn't turn as he spoke. "They know something about the murders. Would you eavesdrop for me?"

"Yes, my lord," he heard the comforting voice in his ear, then Sebastian left him and Ciel entered the noisy, little shop.

Outside, Oz put a hand to his chest.

"We're really lucky you're powers didn't activate, Alice." He said, his breathing still shaky. For Oz had a blood red seal across his chest, right over his heart. Alice nodded.

"It was like he knew it was there." She commented.

"If he did, he might've seen my seals." Gil looked down at his own. He had made a contact with the chain of the Nightray family, Raven and although that had not made a seal, when he suppressed the B-rabbit's immense power for Oz, it had marked the back of his left hand. "Do you think a chain is behind these murders?"

"Of course," Alice snorted, looking superior. "Chains like to eat human hearts, since they see it as the soul. That way they can tell their contractor how many souls they have devoured."

"Then it really might have your memories!" Oz exclaimed, though no one replied to him.

From his place in the shadows, the butler smiled to himself.

"S-Sebastian? Where are you?" the Earl stopped and yelled out, looking around for his butler. The three other's looked around with shock, for they had not even seen him walk away.

"Such silky hair," they heard the man's voice from a nearby alley. "Those pretty, pretty eyes."

"Sebastian!" Ciel snapped, starting down the alley.

"What's he doing?" Alice frowned as they approached the figure.

"Cats truly are wonderful creatures!" Sebastian smiled in what seemed to be happiness as he scratched a tortoiseshell cat behind the ears. Its two siblings were rubbing themselves on his legs.

"As I suspected," Ciel commented, stepping away as one of the cats turned to him.

"But my lord, they're so sweet."

At this Oz gave a laugh, the earl turned his head to see that Gilbert was seemingly petrified.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Gil's always been scared of cats!" Oz chuckled as he picked one of the felines up, rubbing its head on his cheek. It mewed appreciatively in response.

Suddenly there was a cry from nearby, it echoed off the walls and they all looked up. Sebastian stood up, suddenly serious. A series of cries and screams came to them; with barely a glance at one another they followed the sound.

It didn't take them long to see the source of the commotion, a crowd was gathered around the opening to a street. Nothing in particular stood out about the road, it could have happened anywhere.

"Out of my way!" Ciel snapped as he pushed through the people, skirting around a woman who had fainted. They all stopped as they saw the scene that had attracted so much attention.

A corpse lay in the middle of the road.

**(A/N): Whoo~ So we get to see a corpse for ourselves next time-and maybe some clues about the murderer. Okay, so points for this chapter:**

**-Alice's dress was inspired by the one from the manga/anime and a quick google search.  
**

**-Sebastian's death and the funeral story comes from the 'book of murders' arc of the manga, I think this is around volume 9 & 10. (Here's a secret: I cried at that part, because of Ciel's reaction.)**

**-The limerick that Ciel mentions can be anything really. But I had in mind the limerick that J Michael Tatum sings in the season 2 bloopers.**

**-I don't know if chains really do eat the hearts, but my assumption came from the special oneshot in the Pandora Hearts manga (volume 8), in which there's a lot of 'heart' eating.**

**-THIS CHAPTER WAS REALLY SPECIAL! You see, I write up a chapter plan of all the scenes I want in the chapter and this was the first time ever that I got all of it ticked off! \(^-^)/ *throws party and you're all invited***

**And that was all the points I wrote down, so I'll go to your reviews now. A thank you for JazaChan-I'm glad you're enjoying it and I hope you liked this one! ^^**

**CloudCarnivore: My favourite is Oz too! I like Gil and Break too though (I will say the same for pretty much any character though so X3) and since you like the Undertaker I hope I did him justice in this chapter! I don't know if it'll be a romance between Oz and Alice, but it looks that way so I'm probably gunna roll with that one.**

**Emori Loul: DU-UDE! I appreciate the help with Oz's home but THERE'S A FEW SPOILERS IN THERE! o ****I did mention at the beginning of this that I didn't want to spoil Pandora Hearts for anyone because I hadn't finished myself. But thank you for your help and support ;u;**

**Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it!**

**Answers for reviewers: Does anyone have a release date and website for Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji III? I thought it was coming out on the 7th, but idk if it has and I've heard all sorts of replies for it. AND what card games do you play, since they're such a big part of this fiction.**

**See you all when I can!**


	4. Chapter 4: 10 of Clubs

**(A/N): Hey peeps! ^o^ Sorry it's been a little longer than before, I'm being hit with a ton of coursework. This chapters a little shorter than the others, but there's no particular reason for it. I hope it's a little interesting, since in this one we get a little more information on the murders and each 'side' (as I refer to them in my head) are getting more suspicious of each other.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, Pandora Hearts or motivation for school work.**

Chapter Four: 10 of Clubs

Time seemed to freeze as everyone took in the scene, no one seemed to move or say anything for an eternity. The attack had been on a man this time, though his body was almost unrecognizable in the sea of crimson that lined the concrete. The conclusion that it was the mysterious Queen of Hearts who had committed the murder could be drawn immediately since the corpse's head was lying next to it; a look of immense pain on the lifeless features. The body had been cut in various places, suggesting the man had put up a fight, but the darkest pool of blood was over the man's chest.

Ciel was the one who reacted first, stepping forward to get a closer look. As he did so, someone pushed past him. Oz stumbled as the heavy set man pushed him to one side, but quickly regained his balance.

"Move along, move along," the man yelled to the surrounding people, few of whom actually left. They stood muttering to each other furtively. "Order of the yard!"

"Yard?" Alice asked, turning to Oz for answers. There were a lot of things that he knew about that she didn't, many a times their missions had been delayed due to her pausing at a statue too long. Now however, Oz just shrugged a reply, he was facing the scene with an unreadable expression; it was Sebastian that answered.

"Scotland yard, the police of London." He said, keeping an eye on Ciel, who was glaring at the man.

"If he's from Scotland yard, why isn't he Scottish?" the blonde boy asked, smirking a little at his own joke. Sebastian didn't seem to be amused and remained at stoic as ever.

"They are called Scotland Yard because they are situated on the street of Great Scotland Yard."

Oz nodded to show he'd understood, but his mind really lay at the corpse's chest. Could the chain have taken the man's heart? He stepped forward to get a better look at the wound, but found a hand on his shoulder pulled him back.

He turned, expecting to see Sebastian or Gil, not a young man with auburn hair and a moustache. A quick glance at his clothing informed him this was Fred Abberline, of Scotland Yard.

"This scene isn't appropriate for young boys such as you. You should really move along." The man said, sounding more like a concerned parent than a police officer. Oz got the feeling he cared about everyone, regardless.

"Oh. It's okay, I'm with Ciel." As he finished, he pointed as Ciel, hoping that the younger boy would get them access to the crime scene. He had said this was his case right. The noble was now talking to the other Scotland Yard member, who had asked him to leave.

"I won't tolerate _you _getting involved with this case. This is strictly the yard's business," he had said, his dark sideburns appearing to quiver with anger.

Ciel replied with merely a smirk. "Are you forgetting that I am the Queen's guard dog, Sir Randall? She has strictly informed me to dispose of the murderer known as 'the Queen of Hearts'."

"And what about this...rabble?" the man, Randall as Ciel had said, made a vague gesture in Oz's direction. Oz glanced around and realized that the crowd had been moved on, with Abberline refusing to let anyone else through.

"They're helping me," Ciel's gaze moved to the group too. "They are from Pandora."

Obviously Pandora was known here, from the way that Randall backed off a little and said that he would allow them to examine the corpse, so long as they didn't get in the way.

"Sebastian," Ciel turned to the tall butler and pointed mutely to something on the ground. It had blood splattered onto it grimly, but it was still obvious what it was. A simple playing card that had ten clubs printed onto it.

"It's counting down," Gil said as he stood behind Oz. "Last time it was a jack and the time before a queen."

"Or it could be a comment on nobility. The other four murders have been high ranking women (and her son)." Sebastian countered.

"How'd the murderer get away so quickly?" an impatient voice cut across, Ciel looked up to see Alice frowning down the alleyway. "He couldn't have cut this person up so quickly, left the card here _and _taken off so quickly."

"That's true," Ciel brought a hand to his chin as he thought; it was almost possible to see the gears turning in his head through his remaining eye. "Unless he had already murdered the victim."

Alice snorted. "Unlikely! The corpse is perfectly placed, someone one have seen him placing the head down next to the body. Also, the blood is fresh, since it's splattered on the card we can deduce the card was placed first."

Oz was a little impressed at how well she was deducting everything, but didn't say anything. He did however; look at the man's chest. He felt his heart drop a little, which was ironic considering the man, had none. There was an empty space between his two lungs. His ribcage looked as though it had been smashed through, whether inwards or outwards, the boy couldn't tell.

"This is truly a mysterious killer..." Sebastian's calm voice reminded him of where he was.

"Oz, I want to talk to you." The girl suddenly demanded, looking at Oz meaningfully with glittering violet eyes before walking to the end of the alley. The boy nodded to Gil, which meant that he was to keep the Phantomhives busy so that they couldn't eavesdrop. Whatever Alice had to say, they couldn't hear.

"What's up?" Oz asked, leaning against the wall in an effort to look casual. Alice's eyes narrowed as she spoke.

"It's a chain, I can still smell it." She said with finality. Oz felt his heart sink a little lower than before, he had been hoping it was an ordinary murderer. Then he could go home and pursue more personal matters. Still, since it was a Chain, maybe it had important information.

"Okay. Then we'll have to be extra careful; I don't think Ciel should know." He'd feel bad bringing someone unrelated into all this business. It didn't seem fair to burden him any further.

"I don't trust him," the girl sniffed.

"I gathered," Oz raised his eyebrow, for she had hardly been warm to the noble to far.

"No. I mean...I can't be sure, but when we were speaking earlier..." Alice glanced at the group, who were talking to each other, probably making a few new deductions on the corpse. "I felt another presence."

"The Chain?" his green eyes narrowed.

"No. This was different; it was only for a brief moment too. Though, I keep feeling it near that butler." She flicked her chestnut coloured hair over her shoulder moodily. Oz supposed it annoyed her to not know something and to be on edge like this. He had to admit, it was taking the toll on him too; he already felt exhausted.

"Let's be wary then. If you feel anything again, give me a sign." With that, they headed back to the group. Gil greeted them with questioning eyes, but Oz only shook his head in a sign that said 'I'll tell you later'.

"Well," Ciel coughed a little to get everyone's attention. "What should we do now?"

"I suggested looking into the man's identity and when he was last seen." Gil filled them in, the two teens both nodded in approval.

"That would let us know when he was murdered." Alice said stiffly, she seemed very tense.

"I was thinking of writing to a...colleague," Oz was choosing his words carefully now that the seed of suspicion had been planting within him. "Just to get his advice about this. He'll know a lot."

"I'm sure Snake will take you home in the carriage, if you wish to head back to the manor to write it up," Sebastian said curtly. "My lord and I will research this man."

"How will you get home?" the girl voiced the question on everyone's minds. Sebastian simply smiled.

"We'll be fine."

-Ciel and Sebastian (After the other's had left)-

"What did you find out, then?" Ciel addressed his servant without looking at him, knowing from the twinkle in Sebastian's crimson eyes that he had found something noteworthy.

"Many things actually, though little of it makes that much sense." The man replied, keeping pace easily with the Earl's brisk steps.

"Spit it out."

"They think a chain committed these crimes." Sebastian gave Ciel a sideways glance as he said it, watching the reaction carefully. The boy frowned.

"A chain? As in a metal chain? That's ridiculous." Maybe Pandora was just a bunch of lunatics chasing ghost stories. Others would laugh at such a prospect, but Ciel had put his trust into them which was an act he did not take lightly.

"The type of chain that eats hearts, apparently." There was a slight chuckle of amusement from the butler, though Ciel was not amused.

"I've never heard of such a thing." He waved the fact off. It was useless until they could confront them about it and they all seemed very private about those matters.

"Oz and Gilbert also have seals on their bodies."

"What kind of seals?" Ciel's visible eye narrowed, as he thought of the mark branded into his back. _Was that what the demon meant?_

"I'm not sure," there was a pause, before Sebastian spoke again. "Are you going to confront them about it?"  
"That'll just make them more wary; they're already suspicious..." the boy sighed, at this rate he wasn't going to get any information. He knew this wasn't an average murderer; nothing human committed these crimes. "See if you hear anything else. Are you sure you know nothing about these 'chains' they speak of?"  
"I never lie, my lord. Unless you've forgotten?"

They stopped outside a building that was extremely similar to its neighbours. Sandy, brown stone, tiled roof, tall windows and a dark wooden door. It happened to be the best place to go for records on people that lived in London, Ciel was also hoping to find someone who had witnessed the crime.

-After a couple of hours of research and chatting to relatives of the murdered man-

The two were sat on a park bench, overlooking the grey Thames river. Ciel was tired from all of the walking and suggested they rest and get their facts together. Sebastian had, as always, agreed to the idea. Though they looked peculiar sat there, no one queried it.

"So, the man's name was Allen Goodbody, age thirty. A wife and one daughter and regularly visited his parents," the young boy took a breath. "Many people would be quick to notice his absence."

"But from what we have heard we have learnt, we can conclude that he only disappeared this morning. He had breakfast, but never reached work." Sebastian added, watching a child throw bread to a duck a couple of yards away.

"Which leaves a small opening for the killer to do such damage." The Earl concluded, brushing down his coat of imaginary lint.

There was a pause as the pair mulled over their own thoughts.

"You don't suppose it was a reaper, do you?" Ciel looked up at the man beside him, who remained thoughtful.

"I doubt it. They aren't the type to make such a deal of reaping souls, with Grelle being restricted we can conclude they aren't the suspects."

"Not a demon?" the boy lowered his voice, so they wouldn't be heard. Talk of the supernatural was normal for them, however others may not be so welcoming to the idea of such things. That would be unfortunate, considering what Sebastian was.

"Possibly," for some reason, this simple reply set Ciel on edge. He was in no hurry to meet another demon intent on devouring souls. He followed Sebastian with his eyes as the butler stood up and offered his hand to the young Earl.

"Shall we be getting home, my lord?"

"...Fine." Ciel placed his rather small hand into Sebastian's allowing himself to be pulled up. It wasn't until the two were out of sight, before the butler picked the small boy up and used his powers to get them back home.

-At the Phantomhive Manor-

"Hey look-it's swishy!" Alice exclaimed, turning her waist from side to side. She had taken her actual dress off, though had left her petticoats on. The skirts flared out at her movement, much to her amusement.

She had gotten bored with the boys' letter within the first five minutes. It had been so dull to contend with and she would have preferred to go over ideas themselves.

"That's wonderful Alice," Oz looked up with a smile briefly, before he turned back to the letter, crossing a line out with the quill. She frowned as she thudded onto the floor. It was so annoying that she wanted Oz to notice her so much. Lately she wanted him to tell he she looked pretty, or that she was the only girl he had ever liked.

It was some very confusing feelings that she didn't want to go into too much. Why did she care anyway?

"I'm home." A voice said. Alice was a little shocked, though she would never let that show as she turned to the owner of the voice. As suspected, Earl Phantomhive stood in the doorway, his butler was nowhere to be seen however. She narrowed her eyes and tried to reach out for his presence, but she couldn't find him close by. There was something odd about that man and she intended to find out what.

"Welcome home!" Oz said happily enough from his seat, smiling warmly at the boy. Alice always wondered how he could be so upbeat, or so kind to someone he was suspicious of. Did anyone truly know how he felt inside? Did he really care about anyone, or were they pawns in his game?

Alice shook her head slightly to knock such disturbing thoughts from her brain. She knew Oz cared about her and Seaweed Brain, he had to.

Eventually, Oz and Gil had a neat copy of their letter to Break and Sharon, with no insults to Break (courtesy of Gil) and no flirting with Sharon (courtesy of Oz). It read:

_To Break and Lady Sharon,_

_We have arrived in England and already been to London. It's very pretty here!_

_However, we have more serious matters to discuss. Upon examining a corpse from the 'Queen of Hearts' case, there is no doubt a Chain is behind it. Though there is something odd, the Chain (and Contractor) leave a playing card at the scene of the crime. Three queens, a jack and the 10 of clubs have already been found. We were all wondering if you saw any patterns in this?_

_Also, there is something strange about Ciel Phantomhive. Alice said that she senses strange things from the butler, not like a Chain. At this point we also doubt his relation to Oz._

_Wishing you the best, and requesting all the help you can provide,_

_Oz Vessalius, Gilbert Nightray and Alice._

"Do you want me to check it through?" Ciel asked as Gil stood up to post the letter. The man quickly shook his head.

"N-no; it's okay!" he stammered, which made Oz roll his eyes. Gil never had been good about covering things up.

"We've checked it through a gazillion times already, so we're pretty sure it's fine." He added, giving Gil a little push to the door and Ciel a small smile. He didn't want to think that Ciel was up to no good, but he was getting wearier by the second.

"Gazillion? I'm not sure that's a word." The Earl raised an eyebrow. Oz merely scoffed in response.

"Sure it is!"

He had a feeling that today was just the first day in the many that he would be lying to Ciel, and that Ciel was lying to him.

**(A/N): It'll be a little longer next time, since I thought of a little filler scene on the way to school~! I might even be able to get Sharon in with Equs (or however you spell that X3)**

**So points for this chapter:**

**-I researched Scotland Yard for this so the information should be pretty true. ^^**

**-I AM DEEPLY UPSET MY FRIENDS. Whilst searching for the hair colours of the yard members on Kuroshitsuji wiki (bless that site), I discovered that in the anime Abberline does not have a moustache whilst in the manga he does! I never noticed it but I am so confused as to why they shaved it off. ;o;**

**-Allen Goodbody is a name I have used before. My english homework said to make a character I used in my coursework, but I didn't name him. I was going to put 'Allen Walker', but didn't. So it's now a name I use for EVERYTHING**

**-I know Alice's last name is Baskerville, but I don't know when you find that out and /flails/**

**Reviews:**

**CloudCarnivore: I have finished the anime of Pandora Hearts, and am on volume 11 of the manga currently. Even if I had finished the manga though, it's easier to set it in the anime so it doesn't spoil it for others (though I like the manga too-it's a lot better).**

**Viviane1993: Hello~ And thanks for...well everything! If people don't point these things out then the author never develops-so thank you very much! C: I thought a lot about Oz's character whilst writing this (which was challenging, but also fun) so I hope it's improved. I guess I did have him surprised a lot, though I think the Pluto bit is fairly justified. ^^""" I did saw the flaws in it and maybe I'll correct them as I'm proof-reading later on (though I really want us all to look back and laugh at how bad I used to be in a couple of years). Have I improved a little now? ouo As to Alice sensing Sebastian I did truthfully forget, BUT since you reminded me I was able to work it in-so another big thanks!**

**And that's all~ I'm completely knackered, so I'll see you all next water time~!**


	5. Chapter 5: Queen of Spades

**(A\N): Whew! Hey peeps-sorry this took a little longer than usual (though I did say at the beginning updates once a month, so I'm not doing that bad). But I do have a couple of good reasons this time. Firstly, I needed to finish a lot of coursework off for for school, but now I'm ahead of my french and all my english is handed in, so I should have a little more free time. Then, I don't know how many of you already knew, I had London Comic Con to go too, so I couldn't update for a couple of days. (Pictures are up on my Quotev account) ALSO, I finally got my hands on Black Butler volume 12 (because my library don't stock it) and since there's important stuff in there, I wanted to finish it. (Though I really should have brought Pandora Hearts as well. :I)**

**Anyway, I'm rattling on, so I'll leave you to the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, Pandora Hearts or Troll Horns that are intact.**

Chapter Five: Queen of Spades

"Get the hell away from me!" a voice yelled, stirring Oz in his sleep. He felt as though he was underwater, enclosed in a peaceful dream world that had shielded him from unpleasant reality.

Recognizing the voice as Alice's and immediately thinking that she was in danger, he leapt from his bed. As he was throwing open the door, he paused for a moment, looking down. He'd felt as though he'd dropped or forgotten something, but there was nothing around him.

Oz heard Alice yell again and shook himself from his train of thought, running down the hall to her room, the plush carpet beneath his bare toes.

"You shouldn't say things like that!" another female gasped. "Or you'll go there!"

"Excuse me," Oz said from the doorway, coughing slightly to let the girls know he was here. The other girl in the room was quite short, yet slim with platinum blonde hair that had a slight curl to it, styled into to pigtails. She had a dress that had a hint of pink with brighter, carnation pink on the borders. Her grass coloured eyes were wide as she looked at Alice.

"Oz-what took you so long?" Alice demanded; she was taking refugee from the pink clad girl from behind a chair. She looked like a cornered rabbit.

"Alice, what's going on?" he asked, crossing to her, she slid away from him as though he was also a threat.

"I just wanted to make you look cute," the blonde girl said, a pout on her face. She certainly looked quite cute herself, so it was obvious that it was her passion in life.

"Alice isn't really into that," Oz said apologetically, glancing to where Alice was. "Though, you have let Sharon dress you up once."

"And that was awful! I'm never wearing those stupid frilly dresses again!" the brunette spat, her face going red as she recalled the memory.

"What on earth is going on in here?" a new voice joined them. They turned to see a half dressed Ciel in the doorway, holding his shorts up whilst still wearing his nightshirt. "It sounds like a murder's taking place!"

"Well I came over to see your new guests, Ciel!" the blonde girl replied, walking towards him, her face alight. She looked like a schoolgirl with a crush. "When I heard you had a girl staying here, I just had to see if she was cute."

"Of course," the young earl nodded, looking a little calmer now and adjusting his fringe so that it covered his right eye completely. He seemed to give it a little pat, as though consoling it.

"Who is she, anyway?!" Alice yelled from her corner. Ciel took a breath, but then had a slight smile on his face as he introduced the girl.

"This is Lady Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Midford, my fiancée of several years now." Elizabeth smiled at the two, slipping her arm through Ciel's. Oz noticed that Ciel's smile was a little less fake than it usually was, which showed that Elizabeth meant a lot to him. "Lizzie, this is Oz Vessalius and Alice..."

"Nice to meet you!" Oz put a wide grin on his face and extended his hand, hoping to divert Ciel from Alice's last name. How were they supposed to say they didn't know?

"It's nice to meet you to, Mister Oz!" Elizabeth smiled and curtseyed with one hand. Feeling slightly awkward, Oz withdrew his.

"Are you engaged, Oz?" Ciel asked, though the older boy could see that the earl already knew the answer. In all honesty he didn't know what they had planned, but he doubted his father would have set up a fiancée.

He shook his head, "single and happy."

"It'd have to be a pretty special girl that I'd allow Oz to marry." Alice huffed, looking out of the window moodily. Oz laughed a little, nothing had changed.

"I think we should all continue getting dressed." Ciel announced, before he led Elizabeth back to what must have been her quarters. Oz waved a goodbye at Alice, before he left too.

It was an effort for the boy to find his way back to the dining hall, but eventually he got there. There was a wide variety of food to choose from this morning and Oz wasted no time in snatching a couple of scones from the pile. Everyone else was already seated, and he was scared that Alice would eat his share if he didn't hurry.

"Why'd do you all eat cake so fast?" Sebastian said, as he overlooked the meal. The three workers from Pandora shared a look and a smile, as though they had a secret joke.

"At home if you're not quick, your cake will get stolen by-"

"The clown." Alice (in her normal attire) said simply, cutting across Oz and swallowing her scone whole.

"How do you have time to make all this?" Oz asked.

"I always think that. Sebastian, you really are amazing." Elizabeth added, smiling up at Sebastian as she said it. She always seemed to be smiling, and it always seemed so genuine. Oz was a little envious of that, it was like she had little worries.

"I'm merely one hell of a butler, my lady." Sebastian replied, though he did look slightly pleased at her praise, which was more than a little out of character.

"Oh yes!" Elizabeth suddenly stood, frowning a little. "I need to show you all something." Leaving them with that information, she rushed out the room, her dress hitched up a little so that she could move quickly.

"She's nice." Oz said to Ciel, out of politeness more than anything, ignoring Alice's glare at him. He also feared lulls in the conversation, it reminded them all of how they weren't actually friends.

"She can be tiresome and difficult at times, but yes, she is a wonderful young lady. She's also very skilled with a sword." Ciel remarked, resuming eating his own cake.

"Swords? You two swordfight?" the blonde boy looked up. Swords reminded him of the time he and Elliot had fought off a chain together; a bittersweet memory. He had been trained in fencing and it was something he fairly enjoyed.

"I want to swordfight!" Alice demanded, they all blinked at her, silenced by the sudden outburst.

"Really, Alice? I could teach you." Oz smiled at the thought of teaching her. It would be a lot of fun.  
"You're good with a sword?" Ciel questioned, raising an eyebrow. The blonde certainly didn't look like he practiced regularly.

"I'm decent." Oz shrugged, which was completely honest. He was nowhere near as good as others, but he knew the basics on how to defend himself.

"We could have a fight later if you wanted." As he spoke. the earl took a drink, though his eyes remained on Oz's. The cold stare from the younger boy made the contractor's heart twinge a little. He made sure to keep a steady face as he looked back. They both knew that if they did have a sword fight, the prize would be information.

Oz had no idea how much Ciel knew about Chains and the Abyss, but by the look on his face, he was curious about it. Maybe this swordfight wasn't the best idea, after all. He opened his mouth to politely decline the offer, thinking he could throw in a compliment of Ciel's skills whilst he's at it so he didn't look weak, when Elizabeth came running back in.

"Paula found this when she was bidding me goodnight the other day." She said, speaking very quickly as she approached the table. She placed a flat, white rectangle on the table and everyone felt their stomach's drop slightly.

It was a playing card.

The queen of spades.

Elizabeth looked between everyone when she noticed how silent they were, though not many were actually showing their expressions. "What is it? Is it something dangerous?"

"It could be..." Oz said, peering at it from his seat.

"It could mean that you've been marked." Sebastian said, the corners of his mouth twitching into a small smile. Ciel glared at him.

"You'll be fine Lizzie. We've already concluded the cards are dropped _after _the murder has taken place." He said quickly, standing up from his place. Elizabeth cocked her head to one side for a second, before she gasped.

"You're not talking about the Queen of Hearts, are you?" she asked, Ciel shook his head.

"It's nothing Lizzie." He turned to Oz and Gil. "I think we should head to London and locate who the next victim may be."

"How would we be able to tell?" Gil asked, looking up from his food, it was the first time he had spoken all morning. Oz wondered briefly if anything had been worrying him.

"I've been looking into that, I'll explain if we get going." Sebastian said, leaving the room to make preparations. It seemed as though the decision had been made for them.

"I'm coming too!" Alice said, standing up so suddenly that her chair crashed backwards, Lizzie jumped a little, still confused as to what all the commotion was about.

"Not dressed like that you're not. Plus, it'll arouse suspicion if too many of us leave." Ciel said dismissively, looking briefly at Alice's clothing. She gritted her teeth, looking ready to pick a fight, when Oz placed a hand on her shoulder.

"If you stay here with Elizabeth, I'm sure she'd teach you how to swordfight." He said, mustering a smile. She let a sharp breath out, frowning, but a quiet 'fine' could be heard.

"The carriage is ready, says Oscar." Snake interrupted, appearing in the doorway.

"Right! See you Alice." Oz nodded to Alice, before he headed out with Gil at his heels.

"I'll see you soon, Lizzie." Ciel vowed, pulling Lizzie into a brief hug before he followed his companions.

"They're certainly in a hurry." Elizabeth remarked to the other girl, her eyes on the doorway they had left from.

"Boys always are. They find joy in the thrill of the hunt." Alice complained, still angry at being left behind. She had only agreed because of the look in Oz's eyes. She saw real concern there and it pleased her to know he was still human, if she was not. The prospect of learning how to swordfight and beating him was an added bonus; and would prove her superiority over him.

"What should we do whilst their out?" the blonde girl asked, hoping this was the opportunity to make a new friend. One could never have too many.

"Teach me how to swordfight." Alice half demanded, though she had a look of longing on her face. Elizabeth could tell that it was important to her, for whatever reason. Maybe afterwards, they could look cute in time for the boys to return home.

"I normally don't use my skills, but...if Ciel's not here..." she smiled slightly, "then I won't have to worry so much about not looking as cute as I normally do."

-In the Carriage-

"So how will we find the next victim?" Gil asked as soon as they had set off. Oz hadn't even sat down before the horses started moving and fell sideways into Ciel.

"Get off!" he snapped, pushing Oz into the seat opposite. It would have been something to laugh about if the earl and his butler weren't so tense.

"The latest murder scrambled the pattern that was occurring. They had only been attacking one family, but now it seems they've branched into the general public. We can assume that next on the list is someone related to Allen Goodbody."

"What family does he have?"

"Wife, daughter, parents and a brother." Sebastian replied, reciting it as though from memory.]

"There is another trend. Three women, then two men." Ciel added, Oz clicked his fingers as he got where Ciel was going with this.

"His brother!" there was a pause. "But why was this so urgent?"

"We've yet to find a connection in the timings." The butler replied.

"Plus, if we find and follow Alex Goodbody, then maybe we can catch the murderer. Then no one else will have to die." Ciel looked down, it was subtle, but he looked worried.

"You're scared that Elizabeth's next, aren't you?" the blonde asked suddenly.

"Too bad Alice won't be able to protect her by herself. Gil muttered in Oz's ear. Oz realized in a heartbeat the mistake they had made. Now if they had to fight a chain, all they had was Gil's power and guns. He felt a little helpless suddenly.

"…I'm considering the possibility." Ciel replied, turning to look out of the window. It seemed he was done talking. Oz sighed; _this was going to be a long carriage journey._

"Look, Earl Phantomhive, I can't just drop everything and return to your manor on the _slight _chance I may be murdered." Alex Goodbody sighed, he took a step back as though he wanted to leave, but knew it was impolite when he was in such company.

"It's actually a very probable chance." Ciel argued, impatient and annoyed. Oz leant against the wall and watched the events unfold with tired eyes. They had been at this for an hour now and Alex neither wanted their assistance, nor believed that he was the next victim. He looked pretty rough too; it must've been a big blow to lose his brother like that.

"Let's just leave it," Gil snapped, turning his back on the group. "Watch your back and you should be fine."

"You shouldn't make the decisions for this group." Ciel narrowed his eyes as he turned his head to the dark haired man.

"Why? Gil's a noble too-he's part of the Nightrays." Oz didn't mean to give away that much information, and gave an inside wince as he held Ciel's cold gaze for the second time that day.

"Plus, you shouldn't leave your fiancée for so long, master." Sebastian chipped in, as Oz jogged to catch up with Gil.

"I don't trust them." Gil muttered to his blonde companion, who smirked.

"Join the club."

"Has she found anything else out about that butler?" the taller man asked, Oz replied with a simple shake of his head as the other two caught up to them.

The carriage ride home was quite tense, though that was no surprise. Oz amused himself by kneeling on the chairs and talking to Snake through the front window. They mainly talked about literature, particularly poets.

"Have you heard of a series called 'Holy Knight'?" he queried eagerly, hoping that maybe Snake had some of the volumes he had not read yet.

"No, I can't say that I have - says Keats." Snake replied, looking at the boy from the corner of his eye.

"It's really good! I think you'd like it!" Oz started babbling on about plotlines, but stopped once he reached Edgar. He remembered his and Elliot's discussion and considered what to say about his favourite character.

Thankfully that was around the time they arrived back at the manor, so Oz had an excuse to cut himself short and head inside. He really hoped that they didn't have to go back up to London again anytime soon. They had bumped into a man that had glared at Sebastian as though he wanted to kill him, but said nothing as he walked away.

It took him a while to find Alice, but eventually he found her in Elizabeth's room. Both were wearing frilly dresses and Elizabeth was playing with Alice's hair. Oz wondered how Alice was letting her do so with the mansion still intact.

"Hey Alice-" he was cut off by the grumpy looking girl.

"Don't say anything. We made a deal, okay?" she said.

"I was going to say you look-" once again he was interrupted, though this time it was the blonde haired girl that did so.

"Cute? I thought so!" she chirped, tying the ribbon on a braid that she had added to Alice's hair. Oz nodded, feeling his face go a little hot at what he wanted to add: _that she always looked cute._ "Oh! A letter came through for you; I left it on the table in the entrance hall."

"Right, thanks!" Oz said quickly, rushing out to the location she had said. It had to be Break's reply letter. He slipped a little in his haste as he headed down the stairs, but by lucky coincidence, Gil caught him before he fell any further.

"Why the hurry, Oz?" he asked, raising his eyebrow as they continued down the stairs.

"Break's letter came back," the blonde didn't need to explain further what this meant, and they quickly opened the letter.

_Dear Mister Oz and Mister Gil,_

_It seems you've made quite an entrance already! Be careful that not too many people die for the sake of finding the killer, now, 'kay?_

_You've asked for my assistance, so don't get moody when I give it. The situation you are in reminds me of a game called 'Humbug' (though it is probably quite old now). It is a game in which the two players are dealt half the pack of cards each, meaning they know all the other cards that their opponent has. There is a trump suit, in this case hearts, which will win any round. The way that the game goes is that one player will lay down a card and the other has to lay one of a higher status, yet of the same suit. For example a seven of diamonds will beat a four of diamonds._

_Then again, Lady Sharon says this is all the ramblings of a madman and not to put any stock into it!_

_Just be warned, you're starting to play a very dangerous game._

_-Sincerely, Lady Sharon and Break._

**(A/N): A little bit of a filler, but still some story there. I've figured out more on where I'm going (as opposed to a vague idea that was slowly planned into detail every two chapters) and this was a little bit of a set up.**

**Okay, so points for this chapter:**

**-I took that Sharon dressed Alice up from the back cover of volume two of Pandora Hearts. So it was a little bit of headcanon based off of that.**

**-When does Ciel start calling Elizabeth, Lizzie? He starts of with Elizabeth, then suddenly in the manga he's referring to her as Lizzie. Maybe my memories just really bad. (Though I did almost remember her full name so \(^^)/)**

**-Okay so do horse drawn carriages have front windows? I tried to search it up and I saw a little window behind where the footman would sit but it was really hard to see. **

**-I have this idea that Snake's really into poets. Mainly because Wordsworth and Keats are famous British poets so...**

**-What does Gil call Oz? As kids he refers to him as young master, but as they grow he calls him Oz. (Then when he's talking about Oz, he does say 'my master'.) It's a little confusing ^^""**

**-Likewise, I couldn't find out what Break calls Gil, so I went with that.**

**-Also, I don't think Break knows too much of what he's going on about in the letter. He might know some stuff, but I think he's also just trying to scare them a little.**

**That's all the points that I thought were worthy to note down. Of course, there are points I'll write stuff jokingly then delete it out for something serious, that I could have told you about, but that only amuses me. So I'll respond to reviews now (so many, I love you all):**

**CloudCarnivore: Thank you. And no, I don't think Oz will be in this one, since I'm a little confused at what went on with the whole B-rabbit thing. X3**

**ButterflyWhisperer: Thank you so much for reminding me of Lizzie! Seriously, when I was first planning I was like 'Lizzie could play a really good part in this' and until your review I realized I hadn't introduced her. But yes, there will be more.**

**Catrina7077: Thank you uvu (I'm saying that to everyone, aren't I? But I really mean it-your praise means a lot) I've found the Alice X Ciel crack ship too, don't worry. I may play into it a little later... I haven't really thought about Alice remembering her past but now that I think about it, she might a little. (The love between the Will of Abyss and Alice sounds really cute, I was unaware of their relationship! *dies of cute feels*)**

**And lastly,**

**Viviane1993: Sorry I took so long, but don't worry, I can't forget this story (it's the only one I'm writing on here, so it'd be really hard to forget). Yay, I'm so happy I did improve! It may be a slow process, but I will continue to improve. About your question...I wouldn't say they are completely unaware of each other's existence, for example I think many in Oz's world would think of the Demon World as Hell. Likewise, Demons may have heard of the Abyss, but either dismiss it, or are unable to reach it anyway. For now, each side of this are quite unaware of the other's existence. I hope that makes sense X3**

**And that's all! I'll try to update asap next time, but wait for me if I don't!**

**(Also, does anyone have any good music playlists, since I really need one for when I'm writing.)**

**Bye, bye~ ouo**


	6. Chapter 6: King of Diamonds

**(A/N): Hey everyone, sorry for the wait (was it even that long since I last updated?). I had a completely crazy week! My first chance to sit down and write was Wednesday afternoon (and even then I had a drama class later), so it was really hard to continue this. (Especially since I'm overdue a chapter on a couple of other things.**

**Also, I may not be able to update regularly in the next couple of weeks. I've got work experience and my hours are a little longer into the afternoon than normal school, so I don't know how long I'll get to write. Bare with me though.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Black Buter/Kuroshitsuji, Pandora Hearts or a social life.**

Chapter Six: King of Diamonds

"So, who was that man that looked at us funny?" Oz asked, leaning back on the sofa. They were lounging around in one of the mansion's many rooms before heading to bed. The sky outside the window was stained a vibrant orange, though it reminded Oz of the blood in the murder scene.

"Oh, he was no one." Ciel said dismissively, he was playing chess against Gil and winning with ease.

"His name is William Spears, I believe." Sebastian added, smiling slightly.

"Was your trip useful?" Elizabeth turned to Ciel.

"Not in the slightest," the boy replied irritably, though no one knew what he'd expected to happen from it.

"What should our next move be?" Gil asked; wincing as his remaining knight was thrown from the board.

"I've been considering heading to my house in London. It would give us a better view on things-"

"And no more long carriage rides!" Oz said gratefully, cutting across Ciel. It had been okay at first, but after all the hours spent there it had lost all novelty (plus the potholes in the road seemed to be multiplying).

"Yes. The only problem is, is that there won't be room for all of us there." Ciel made sure he didn't add that two people were already staying there; Prince Agni and his butler. Not only would that arouse Oz's bottomless curiosity, it would be a long story to explain.

"Oz, Alice and I are staying together from now on." Gil said firmly, moving a pawn forward in what was an obvious trap. It became apparent that he wasn't really focusing on the game, Ciel wondered for a moment what had him so distracted.

"That's fine," though he'd prefer to have them split up. They all seemed to be able to work together with just looks and signals, which made him slightly uneasy. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Surely you could get a hotel nearby Ciel's London home." She said, fiddling with the long strand of hair that hung out of her pigtail.

"That could work," Oz replied, looking to Ciel for him to clarify the idea, with a sigh the boy nodded. _But that would make it harder to find out about you._

"Very well. We could travel now if you like?" he stopped himself from smirking, already knowing the answer.

"No thanks. If I go into that carriage for another second today, I'd collapse." Gil said leaning back as Ciel finished the game with one clean move from his queen. It was like he had set that trap up all along, and there was no way of escaping it. Oz smiled a little.

"But Gil, I think I saw a cat outside," he teased, making the man shudder at the thought. Though he agreed, they had done a lot of travelling today, whilst he was not tired, if this was his last day at the manor, he wanted to explore a little more.

-That Night (around Midnight)-

Alice's eyes snapped open as she heard a door open. She sat upright and grabbed a poker from the fire in a matter of seconds. As she stood by the fireplace, trying to make her breathing soundless, she discovered that it wasn't her door being opened, it sounded like the one next door.

She moved to her own, pressing her ear against it to hear better, though she could feel her blood above everything else, trying to fill the silence that had occurred in the room. Beneath this, however, she heard footsteps moving down the hall.

Curious, she pulled the door open and stepped out boldly, holding the poker so tight that ash fluttered onto the carpet, though it was too dark to see the damage. The candles had either been extinguished or had burnt down to the holders, the only light remaining a silver square at the end of the hall.

"Who's there?" she half whispered, half shouted into the darkness of the hall.

"Shhhh! Alice, it's me!" came the response, it took her a moment to realize it was Oz, and frowning.

"What are you doing out here?" she said it a little quieter than last time.

"I want a look around, Ciel's hiding something." Oz whispered, continuing to shh her, she could see his silhouette putting a finger to his lips. She stepped forward, intrigued, but she forgot that she had the poker raised in defense.

Oz took a breath, trying to stop himself from cursing as he stumbled backwards, having been stabbed in the gut by Alice's weapon. She lowered it, feeling a little silly for being so silly about the whole thing.

"Okay?" she said, though she knew that the ash would leave a mark on his white shirt. That was going to be fun to explain.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Do you want to come with me?" he asked, straightening up. They could barely see each other in the dark, and it took a couple of seconds of Alice nodding before she remembered that.

"Fine." She tried to sound like she didn't care, but in reality she was dying to go with him. It had been creepy sleeping in that room all alone and she didn't want to go back to a cold, dark bed. She also happened to be curious about Ciel's true nature as well.

Alice jumped a little as she felt Oz's hand touch hers, it was boiling hot compared to hers. She didn't know why he had held her hand, walking in step with her until he whispered to her "so we don't get lost."

After a few minutes, Oz paused. Alice turned in his general direction to ask why, in the dim light she saw that he was searching forward with his foot.

"Okay, there are steps here. Be careful, they seem quite steep."

"You're the clumsy one," she snapped back, slightly insulted that he thought she would fall. She wasn't completely useless; in fact, she was far from it.

Still, she reached out her other hand for the bannister as they headed down. The stairs seemed much steeper in the dark than they had been in the day and it was slow-going.

When they finally reached another corridor, Alice was thinking _why are there so many boring corridors that look the same here? _However, she voiced another question in her mind. "What are we looking for, exactly?" it came off much ruder than she had originally meant it. There was a long silence, she wondered if Oz had fallen asleep standing up so poked him hard in the arm.

"...I don't know, really. I just thought there'd be some clues around here." Alice felt anger well up inside her. As she was opening her mouth to yell at him for being so moronic by not even thinking of a plan, there was a sudden noise.

It ressembled like an angry bear and they in the hallway froze further than they had to hear better.

"C'mon," Alice said, forgetting that they were supposed to be quiet. She had already started forward when Oz wrapped his fingers around her mouth. She glared; they were both illuminated by the light from the window. 'Please be quiet' he mouthed, his hair shining white in the moonlight. She nodded, still glaring at him, before she dropped his hand and hurried along to try to find the source of the sound. She heard Oz following her hastily and smiled to herself.

The sound kept cutting out, but eventually they found its source. It had led them around to the back of the mansion, the night air was crisp and chill, but there was no wind. Looking around, they saw a figure drop from a large bush that had been cut into the shape of a skull. The ones nearby it had adopted this fashion too.

"Do you think this is Sebastian's hobby?" Oz asked Alice, his lips tickling her ear. She snorted at the idea, though his words seemed to have caught the attention of the mysterious bush cutter.

"Bassy?" they called, though they had a high pitched voice, it was distinctly male. Alice and Oz exchanged a curious look.

"Um, no...?" Oz supplied the answer as the figure approached. It appeared to be a man, in sparkling red glasses that matched his long coat and a suit. What was most peculiar was the scarlet hair and eyes lying somewhere between green and yellow.

"Oh, it's just some brats. What are you doing here?" he said, his eyes narrowing. Now that he was closer, they could see that the strange noise he had been emitting was coming from a strange box like machine. It had a jagged, cylindrical blade coming from it that appeared to make the noise when it whirred around.

"What are _you _doing here?" Oz countered, trying to push the man's concentration off of them. It worked very easily, the man placing a hand on his chest flamboyantly.

"I'm just leaving a present for my darling Bassy." When the stranger smiled, he revealed sharp teeth. Oz had to assume that 'Bassy' meant Sebastian. One thing was for sure, this man was far from ordinary.

"Who are you? You look like a girl." Alice said, less than kindly, but it was too late for Oz to warn her that he could very well be dangerous.

"Well, I am a beautiful lady. They call me Grell Sutcliffe, the deadly efficient butler!" at this the man, sorry, woman struck a pose. A kind of rock symbol with one hand, a wink and his-her-tongue between her teeth. The two teens stood there, completely confused. Who was this man, and why did he call himself a woman?

There was an awkward silence where the three stared at each other, before Alice tugged on Oz's sleeve like a child.

"I think I'm still asleep," she said almost urgently, Oz couldn't resist a smile creeping up on him.

"If you are, I'm having the same dream."

"I am here and I am real!" Grell complained, looking put-out by the two's reactions.

"Okay. What's that thing?" Alice pointed to the device in his hand, though she had stepped in front of Oz protectively.

"This? It's my death scythe!" Grell said, hauling it up to his shoulder height, it looked heavy, "of my own design."

"Death scythe?" Oz tilted his head to one side in question, whilst Alice actually asked it. They had never heard of such a thing.

"All reapers carry a death scythe. Jeez, you two aren't the brightest tools in the shed now, are you?" Grell replied, still sounding cheerful. Alice gave Oz a backwards glance, _reapers?_ _Was that what Sebastian was?_

Oz stepped forward, prepared to confront this person about Sebastian's identity and perhaps the Queen of Hearts Case, when Grell jumped suddenly. He pulled out a book and grimaced as he looked at it.

"Looks like I have to get back to work. Ugh, bracing myself for the paperwork. See you around!" with a final flourish and a wink, Grell was scampering off again. The two were more than a little confused, but at least they had more information.

"So do you think," Oz broke off as Alice sneezed. He hadn't noticed before that she was only wearing a thin nightgown (that, judging by the pink ribbons on it, was lent to her by Elizabeth) and as such was shivering in the crisp night air. "Let's go inside."

As he reached out to take her arm, she pulled away from him. "I'm fine!" _The typical Alice reply._

"I'm cold too," Oz muttered. It was a complete lie; however it was enough to get the girl to go back inside with him. As they did so, he tried to brush as much off the soot from the poker off his shirt as he could. It blended with the silver light as it fell, though there was a determined black mark that was _not _going to move. _That was going to take a good excuse._

-The Next Morning (Alice)-

After they had come in from the gardens last night, Alice had barely slept. Her mind was just too alive. It was filled with too much information.

Up until now, she hadn't been too bothered about the Queen of Hearts case, it had just been another Chain case with no sign of her memories. Corpses, blood and guts didn't affect her after who knows how many years in the Abyss. Now though, things were different, Oz hadn't noticed what she had.

A card had been trapped on the rose bush by the door, pierced through the middle by a thorn as it sat by a snowy white rose.

_The king of diamonds._

This could only mean Oz. She knew it. She just didn't know what to make of it. Did it mean that Oz and Elizabeth were the next targets? Was the Red Queen targeting them next?

More importantly, who put that there? It can't have been Grell, he was too busy cutting bushes for Sebastian, and it looked like he hadn't been anywhere near there. Had it been Ciel himself?

No, he seemed to care too much about Elizabeth's safety to set her up and murder her. She seemed to be the only one he cared about besides his butler...

His butler. Alice's suspicions of the man who claimed to clean the entire mansion in an hour had risen with this thought. Of course, it could very well have been the servants, but although they were an extremely strange trio, she hadn't felt the same...feeling coming from them. Sebastian was definitely special.

She kept telling herself she only cared because if Oz died she'd be thrown back into the Abyss, in reality she knew their relationship had developed further than that. They had become friends, 'comrades' now, they cared for each other.

This was all on her mind as she lay in the bed she had been given. Strangely, she longed for someone else to be in the room. Oz or Gil, just to talk to or look at. Just to remind her she was safe.

The sun was beginning to rise as she heard footsteps outside her room again. She tightened her knuckles around the iron poker, which was in bed next to her. There was no way that she was sleeping without a weapon now, now she knew that everyone crept around.

There was a gentle knock on her door, to which she didn't reply. She was waiting for them to speak first. If it was Oz or Gil, she'd open up straight away, but she didn't trust anyone else. It had been twice now a strange noble had crept into her room, she didn't want to risk a third. She leant next to the doorframe, straining to listen.

"Miss Alice?" a voice as soft as the knock came through the wood of the door. Alice stiffened, it was Sebastian. _What did he want with her?_ She stayed quiet, she couldn't even hear him breathing. "You're from the Abyss, right?"

Alice's breath caught in her throat, she cursed herself inside for she knew he could hear her reaction. Since her cover was blown anyway, she opened the door a crack. Sure enough, the tall butler was stood outside, a smile tugging at his lips.

"How do you know that?" she snapped, her eyes as narrowed and accusing as she felt she could possibly make them.

"I can smell it on you. What's your connection to these Chains?" Sebastian smirked a little. Alice slammed the door shut before he could see the blush rising on her face. _The connection is I _am _one, _she thought bitterly as she leaned against the wall. There was a long silence, before she spoke again.

"What _are _you? You're _different._" Alice said the word 'different' like it was being ripped out of her. It was the only way to describe it. Even now, there was this sense of dread emanating from the man...if he even was a man. This time there was no reply from Sebastian for a long time, she wondered if he'd moved on.

"Breakfast is in ten minutes. Let's both protect our masters, alright?"

"Oz isn't my master!" she roughly swung the door open to scream it at him, as he was already halfway down the hall. Gil opened the door across the hall, with a raised eyebrow. Alice wasn't in the mood to talk, or communicate in any way, so she just stuck her tongue out and slammed the door. Then leant on it and sunk down.

_Was Sebastian the one behind this?_

-At Breakfast (Ciel)-

"Did you do as I asked?" Ciel asked disinterestedly, giving his butler a sideways glance as he sat at the table. No one else had bothered to come to breakfast, Ciel didn't know what Sebastian had said or did, but it was obviously enough to keep them away.

"When don't I, my Lord?" Sebastian replied, his smile dropped when Ciel narrowed his large eyes at him. "Yes, I kept an eye on Alex Goodbody."

"Well?"

"It would be extremely easy for him to be killed by the Queen of Hearts."

"Anything else?" Ciel pressed, getting slightly annoyed that Sebastian was only drip feeding him the information he wanted.

"There are quite a few reapers lurking around London, so I conclude that there must be an increase of souls." The butler continued.

"Or something's happening to the souls that gained their attention. If this Queen of Hearts is a chain, could it be taking the souls?" the Earl's eyes widened as he realized that. He also realized he'd have to deal with reapers again, who were either freaks or so bent on hating demons nothing else mattered. They also always had to do paperwork.

"Most probably."

"You know more than you're letting on." Ciel concluded, this was not unlike his butler, who was hardly trustworthy to begin with. It was quite annoying though, he had said they were in this together.

"As always, you get smarter every day. I don't know much about the Chains of the Abyss, I assure you. Only that if they didn't exist, neither would anyone else."

"Even you?" coming from the world he had, the young boy suspected that the Butler could withstand the 'Abyss' not existing. So he was surprised when Sebastian shook his head.

"Not even me," he said solemnly. That sparked Ciel's interest again, making him all the more determined to capture this chain.

-Gilbert's room-

Gil leant against the tall chair in his room. He had been so alert of everything lately, that he was feeling exhausted a lot of the time. Not to mention worrying about Oz...

...He had heard him sneaking out most nights to wander the mansion, but hadn't had the courage to confront him about it. He really should as he just knew Oz was learning more about Ciel than anyone else was.

On Gil's desk lay the letter from Break, weird drawings in the margins and all. He had read it a million times, contemplating every rule of this 'Humbug' game, though he knew it was probably babble that wouldn't help them. Still, he couldn't help seeing everyone as cards, waiting to trump one another.

Speaking of cards, one lay on his desk. The Kind of Diamonds. He'd found it this morning and knew it was meant for Oz, but once again, couldn't bring himself to confront his young master about it. He'd probably had enough on his mind. He knew it was for Oz from the house he came from. Both the Nightrays and the Phantomhives seemed to radiate darkness wherever they went, calling for the club and spade suits. The Bezarius family fit with the idea of diamonds so perfectly...

...Gil couldn't believe he was comparing people and families to cards. But was that the point? Was that what the killer was trying to say? That lives are as valuable as playing cards, easily trumped by the Queen of Hearts.

Next to these objects, was a rose. A white rose, but not quite. It had sloppily been painted black, leaving it grey on some petals and red paint (he hoped it was paint and not blood) had been splattered on it.

Though he didn't know what to think of the red, he knew quite well what the black meant. It was the symbol of the Nightray house, and it meant that his brother knew where he was.

He might even be in London.

Gil shook his head, his black curls becoming more unruly as he did so, one hand reached for his lighter. He thought more on Vincent as he stood at the window, filling the room with putrid smoke. Vincent may have left the flower just to let him know he was safe, or that he was sent to work on the case too (he did work at Pandora, after all). It was just one of his overly attached little brother ways.

Though Gil couldn't help but hope he was a card of a higher rank than Vincent.

**(A/N): Hopefully that got the ball rolling a little faster now. It's a little longer than the previous two have been and for that I'm grateful. I was going to end it with Alice, then with Ciel, but I added the little bit with Gil in. I have to apologize to all the Gil fans, he hasn't been in this much because I find it really hard to write him. I'm trying though-he'll be in there more now I promise!**

**I want to thank you guys for putting up with this (and me), I know when they come out they have mistakes. (After a couple of days, my proofreader replies and I change it though). I also know I'm not the best at writing this, so thank you for bearing with me as I try to find my feet.**

**So, points for this chapter:**

**-Grell(e). This (wo)man caused a lot of conflict. First of all, I spell it Grelle, but after looking through some other fanfiction, I found it was spelt Grell. I also tried to avoid pronouns because although (s)he prefers to be a girl, it got a little confusing.**

**-I have no idea how reapers communicate. I thought maybe they get alerts in their books when they need to reap a soul or something. Anyway, I hope they'll play a satisfactory part in this story (I also want Ronald Knox to be in this X3)**

**-Oz's last names confuse me. Vessalius or Bezarius? From what I've gathered, he is called Vessalius, whereas the family is referred to as Bezarius.**

**SO REVIEWS:**

**CloudCarnivore: Things would certainly get interesting with Break there! I don't know whether to bring him in, or keep him in letters though. (It's very hard to write scenes with lots of characters in)**

**Vivianne1993: I always look forward to this review uvu Thank you, I really enjoyed writing Elizabeth and Alice! It took me about an hour after reading your review to realize that you researched for me! Thank you so much! I never would have known that about the Abyss! As you can probably see, it really helped shape the ending of this chapter and increased the tension between the sides. I'm really grateful to you, you've contributed so much to this story. I hope you continue to enjoy it!**

**ButterflyWhispher: It was no problem-there will be more Lizzie in the future! (Hopefully she can kick some ass.)**

**Guest: Kuroshitsuji characters are quite stuck up, yeah, but it does make Ciel a hell of a lot of fun.**

**Also guys, I have a question-it's kind of important. Do you like where this story is headed? Also, is the pace okay, or should I hurry it up? This is my first mystery and at the moment if feels like it's not going anywhere. Your support is appreciated (even if it is negative)! :)**

**See you all next water time! (I don't watch too much Free!Iwatobi Swim Club btw, I just steal that catch line)**


	7. Chapter 7: King of Spades

**(A/N): Sorry for the long wait everybody! I just was so unmotivated and then some things popped up and I didn't have time to write (well apart from the beginning of a JeanMarco fic, but that's another story). Anyway, here is the long awaited chapter seven.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji, Pandora Hearts or a pocketwatch.**

Chapter Seven: King of Spades

Ciel sighed, as he seemed to a lot since Oz had come, resting his elbows on the desk in front of him. There was a pile of paperwork on it currently, one page of which was halfway on it's way to being an aeroplane. He didn't know where to go in the Red Queen investigation, or how to find out more about 'Chains' and the mysterious 'Abyss' that Sebastian had mentioned.

It was their understanding that Chains came from the Abyss. Ciel had found this out when he was awoken by Sebastian in the middle of the night, the man having just remembered about the prison referred to as the Abyss, though he knew nothing more than that. It was like an elusive myth to him, something everyone knew about but never actually _knew._

"Is something wrong, my Lord?" the boy looked up suddenly, his butler was by his office door, looking concerned. It took Ciel a moment to realize that he had opened both his eyes, his eyepatch now on the desk in front of him.

He closed his eyelid over the violet eye, shaking his head.

"I didn't need anything, no." He said, slightly embarrassed beneath his façade. Sebastian nodded, but still walked over to do up the fallen eyepatch again. Once it was tied, Ciel shook his head once more, to free hair from the patch, allowing his fringe to fall neatly back over it.

"It seems Alice is indeed from the Abyss, from her reaction when I mentioned it." Sebastian continued, heading to the door again.

"Which means?"

"Which means that she could very well be the Red Queen," was the reply that came just before the door snapped shut. Ciel leant back the other way, hitting the back of his leather chair hard.

So Pandora _were _involved. He had started to doubt it the information he had received, if one could call it that. When the case had started, he had looked up records (which was very hard since Scotland Yard kept getting in the way) and found several similar incidents had occured in England. All had been solved by different people, though at a closer look, they all worked for some organization called 'Pandora'.

After sending Sebastian to find out more, he discovered that there was a lot of hype about 'Oz Vessalius' and was intrigued by a boy born twenty five years ago, that was still fifteen. He also had solved many cases involving murders, so was capable of helping.

It had interested Ciel so much that he had invited Oz here, unknowing to the Labrador attitude the boy had adopted. There had to be something beneath that, for no one was that easy-going naturally.

The Earl got up and opened his window. It was a hot afternoon for the Spring and he felt as though he was suffocating in his office. He leaned over as the glass swung away, narrowing his eyes for a better look. There was Oz, walking through the flowerbeds. He looked up as soon as Ciel was going to pull away. A grin instantly appearing on his face as he waved. The Earl went to turn away, he wasn't here to make _friends_, he was here for information on Pandora.

"Ciel! You do know some crazy guy cut the bushes into skulls, right?" Ciel stopped in his tracks at this news, turning back to the window.

"Are you serious?" he called back down, ignoring social manners for the moment being.

"Of course! Some person named Grelle." Oz seemed a little amused at the memory, whilst Ciel shook his head. _Madman-woman-whatever. They needed to be stopped. _"Also...someone painted the white roses."

"Let me guess, red?" Ciel shouted, the blonde boy below nodded, both were quite unamused by that turn of events. "I'll be down as soon as I can." With that, Ciel hurried out the room, some of the papers on his desk floating down, the Queen of Hearts Lizzie had given him fluttered down too.

He arrived at Oz quickly, without saying a word they both headed to where the roses were planted. It was true, half of the roses had been sprayed with red paint.

"I guess it means they know we're after them, right?" Oz said, reaching out to touch one. It stained his finger, even more so as he tried to wipe it away. "...It's not paint."

"Let me see," Ciel snapped, pulling Oz's finger towards his face. The red had stained the tip of the other boy's index finger a burgundy colour, unlike red paint, which would rest on the surface of his skin. "It's not paint. It's blood."

Oz tugged his hand back, looking at it with crossed eyes. He licked it, looking only a little confused at the news, before he nodded. "That's blood all right. So...it's a warning?"

"Or Grell left it here. Wait...what's that?" Ciel pointed to something dark hidden under the leaves of the rose bush. He left Oz to pick it up, seeing as he didn't seem to mind getting dirty. Oz brought out a coal black rose, he seemed a little unnerved by it, but it was hard for Ciel to tell.

They both seemed similar in the aspect that they hid their emotions, but Oz did it differently to Ciel.

Ciel looked at the rose, then back at Oz. He didn't have to say anything, his eye was asking the question. '_What's so important about it?_'

"It's the symbol of the Nightray family,"

"Gilbert's family?" Gil was still Ciel's favourite of the three Pandora workers. He seemed to be the only one with sense and he watched over Oz in a way similar to Sebastian and him.

"That's the ones. They left a ton of these black roses when they kidnapped Lady Sharon. Do you think it means they're behind it?" Oz asked, his eyes moving from the rose to Ciel's face. He was watching him carefully.

"Oz, I think we need to head to London. It's where the murders are being committed so it's the only place we'll find the killer." Ciel answered with determination, ignoring the question that the other boy had asked. "We need to stop sitting around the manor and flush the killer out. _Now._"

The Earl was even more agitated when Oz didn' t answer him, but continued to look at the rose, turning it slightly with his fingertips.

"Flush...like a royal flush?" he said, his voice was soft and thoughtful.

"What are you talking about?"

"In the game Break described, you play a card higher than the one your opponent played. That would mean that we'd have to play a king, preferably of hearts, to beat the Queen of Hearts. Unless we had the trump suit." Oz continued, spinning the flower around more in his fingers as he spoke. He seemed to be onto something, however metaphorical and ridiculous.

"What would the trump suit be?" Ciel asked, his eye narrowing. Oz shrugged, then took a breath.

"It was just a thought," he said with a smile. In truth, it had been to heavy to think about for too long, and a little scary that they may not be able to beat the foe, so he had moved on for now. "I agree. We need to head to London-but I can't leave Alice or Gil." Oz started to walk back into the manor as he spoke, he was planning on getting his things ready.

"Why not?" Ciel was suspicious now, _what did they all do together? Did they have some kind of power? Was it related to the Abyss._

"Because. Can't you leave Sebastian?" the blonde boy sounded slightly like he was grabbing at straws now, which was interesting.

"No." Was the abrupt reply. There was no way Ciel _could _leave Sebastian behind. It was all part of their contract. Plus, he had that...habit...of getting captured, so he'd need Sebastian. He didn't want to get saved by a hyperactive puppy and his girlfriend.

"Then it looks like we're all going," Oz shrugged again and held the door open for Ciel to pass. The younger boy paused, they were both of the same level, yet Oz was doing this for him. He was watching Ciel with an almost amused face, as though he was deliberately trying to mess with his head.

Ciel shook his head slightly, Oz wasn't like that, before he carried on through the door. He considered saying 'thanks' for a moment, but decided against it.

"What's the plan when we reach London? Just split up and look for clues?" Oz asked, walking quickly to catch up.

"I suppose. We need somebody to watch Alex Goodbody, then we should try to find William; he should be able to tell us if Grell's involved." Ciel spoke his plan as he was formulating it, deciding that Oz, Alice or Gil could find Alex, whilst he and Sebastian found William; the reaper may not like demons, but he probably wouldn't speak to normal mortals either.

-Time Skip to London-

"Alice? Alice!" Oz shook the girl's shoulder. She had fallen asleep on him halfway to London and still hadn't woken up. Now that they were here, Alice really did need to get off of him.

"Go away..." she mumbled in her sleep, nuzzling into Oz's shirt further. Ciel looked almost amused.

"Do you want us to move on?" he asked, taking a step out of the carriage. Oz sighed and shook his head.

"It's fine." With that, he adjusted himself and pulled Alice up so that he was carrying her piggyback style.

They walked in silence through the streets of London, heading nowhere in particular, since it was nice to get out of the mansion. The air was hardly clean, but it was different and refreshing compared to the sweet country air.

As they were walking past a group of chattering women, Gil paused for a moment. His disappearance was hardly noticed as he jogged forward a moment later to catch up.

"I have bad news," he said in a low voice. "Alex Goodbody was murdered yesterday night."

"Damn." Ciel muttered. It had thrown a spanner into the works of his plan.

"What card was left?" Sebastian asked curiously, however Gil merely shrugged in response.

"Is the crime scene still intact?" Oz asked, Alice's brown hair tickling his face as she moved with the rhythm of his stride. Gil shrugged again.

"Apparently it was near Trafalgar Square," he said, without anyone saying a word, they knew that's where they were headed next.

After taking multiple wrong turns, Alice hitting Oz for carrying her and asking for directions three times, they reached the square. It was hard at first to spot the crime scene because it was so busy and the huge stone lions were blocking the view. Though, after walking around the structure, they found a section cornered off with members of Scotland Yard around every five feet or so.

They weren't allowing anyone to get close to the crime scene, however they could all guess that it was another Queen of Hearts case. _Who else would have done so?_ Sebastian and Gil were taller than the other two, so craned their necks to see over the crowd.

"Any card?" Ciel asked, looking up slightly.

"The card that was found was the nine of clubs." A voice said from behind them, they all turned. Gil, Oz and Alice seemed surprised, albeit accusing also.

"E-Elliot?!"

**(A/N): So it's a little shorter than usual, but like I said, I'm finding it really hard to get motivated about this again.**

**This chapter was a little more focused on Ciel and my new brotp. X3**

**So only one point for this chapter:**

**-Has Oz had many cases? Idk really, but in this fic he has.**

**And on that note, the last question I asked really caused a stir, huh? Everybody seemed to know the answer. XP crazy!**

**Reviews:**

**CloudCarnivore: Thanks! I'm not too sure if it'll be a full on fight, rather more of an argument. I don't know why but it's unlikely chains will be fighting eachother here.**

**Emori Loul: Wow, that IS a long review. Thank you for writing all that out! And thank you for pointing out plotholes uvu What happens is I write something hinting at something further, then forget about it! It's a good thing you brought those points up, otherwise I think I would have forgotten about them! *laughs* However, I hope this chapter answered some of your questions and hopefully I'll be able to show you all why Ciel brought them here in the first place.**

**Vivianne1993: I thought it seemed a little slow, so thank you for saying it! However, your comment made me feel that's okay, so I guess we'll just see what happens.**

**Futago-chan: Ahhh thank you! I didn't people loved my story like that! ^^ I hope to put in Oz's serious personality-it'll be a lot of fun to write. Ciel's in for a bit of a shock! (But then I think he'll understand and a beautiful friendship may endue)**

**ButterflyWhispher: Thank you~! And yes, Sebastian probably does know, but either he doubts they'll find anything of interest, or thinks it'll bring up something interesting.**

**Mimoxtreemo: Ah, thank you! I'm sorry it wasn't really 'soon'. We should hopefully see more of Vincent.**

**And that's all! Wow, we had a lot on the last chapter, huh? The reason I didn't want reviews on the author's note is I delete them after the next chapters up. Then the reviews tend to get a little messed up and stuff.**

**Also...I don't know how often I'll update this. Lately I've been uninspired and unmotivated to continue it. After writing up a plan and doubting it I don't know if I can even continue. It's beginning to feel more like a burden than a hobby.**

**Maybe it's just writer's block and I'm being a drama queen...**

**I'll see you all when I next see you.**


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